Suitability Mapping for Constructed Wetlands

Suitability mapping aims to provide the best locations of systems or infrastructures for their conceptual design, where suitability analysis ranks the locations based on various criteria affecting the performance of the system or infrastructure. This chapter presents the guide for suitability mapping and analysis for constructed wetlands (CWs) with case studies in the Philippines. A geographic information system (GIS) software was used to map the suitable locations, while the suitability analysis used a multicriteria decision-making (MCDM) technique for Bulacan, Laguna, and Negros Oriental, Philippines. The decision criteria analysed were land use, soil type, slope, distance to water bodies, and distance to population centres. Criteria weights were derived from the literature and surveys with experts and then analysed using the Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) MCDM technique. A suitability map was generated using the computed weights and normalised maps of each criterion as inputs into ArcGIS Pro. The suitability analysis for the CWs in the case studies was done by taking the top 20% of the suitable locations and further evaluating them based on the actual site conditions using Google Earth.