Assessment of Engineering Geological Conditions for Allocation of Landfills

The paper describes scientific and methodological approach to assessing engineering geological conditions in platform areas for selecting environmentally friendly locations for landfills. By the example of the Central Federal region of Russia, an algorithm is proposed for assessing geoenvironment suitability on the basis of a comprehensive study of the geological structure, lithology of soil and rock massifs, hydrogeological conditions, and manifestation of exogenous geohazards. A method of two-stage geological zoning has been developed: the first stage includes a small-scale zoning for the preliminary assessment of geological structure and distinguishing favorable territories; and the second stage consists in a large-scale geological zoning and outlining particular plots for the possible municipal solid waste (MSW) disposal based on the expert scoring scale. Additional engineering protective measures are recommended for the arrangement of MSW landfills within each distinguished type of soil conditions. The use of the proposed method in combination with the assessment of socio-economic parameters at the planning stage makes it possible to make decisions on the choice of waste disposal sites in the studied region.