Municipal Solid Waste Disposal Sites and Geological Risk in the Central Federal Region of Russia

The Central Federal region of the Russian Federation consists of 17 administrative districts, the population density in some of them being the highest in Russia. At present, about 500 waste disposal sites and dumps are allocated there, serving as a source of contamination hazard. Many landfills have been formed spontaneously in the areas, where geological environment is not adequately protected from the surface contamination. We propose the procedure to assess the natural-technogenic-social risk for the administrative districts in the studied area proceeding from the evaluating of integral hazard score and the hazard recipient factor. To a small-scale study (1:2 500 000), the following factors are considered: favourability of engineering geological conditions for allocation of landfill facilities, the number and the type of landfills, hydrometeorological hazardous processes, and the population density in the area. Favourability of engineering geological conditions is assessed proceeding from the mode of occurrence of low permeable soil and rock strata in the geological massif. This integral risk assessment is of an overview kind, being intended for the Federal government bodies upon planning investments in waste management and defining priority investment areas.