Optimal Solar Plant Site Identification Using GIS and Remote Sensing: Framework and Case Study

Many countries have set a goal for a carbon neutral future, and the adoption of solar energy as an alternative energy source to fossil fuel is one of the major measures planned. Yet not all locations are equally suitable for solar energy generation. This is due to uneven solar radiation distribution as well as various environmental factors. A number of studies in the literature have used multicriteria decision analysis (MCDA) to determine the most suitable places to build solar power plants. To the best of our knowledge, no study has addressed the subject of optimal solar plant site identification for the Al-Qassim region, although developing renewable energy in Saudi Arabia has been put on the agenda. This paper developed a spatial MCDA framework catering to the characteristics of the Al-Qassim region. The framework adopts several tools used in Geographic Information Systems (GIS), such as Random Forest (RF) raster classification and model builder. The framework aims to ascertain the ideal sites for solar power plants in the Al-Qassim region in terms of the amount of potential photovoltaic electricity production (PVOUT) that could be produced from solar energy. For that, a combination of GIS and Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) techniques were employed to determine five sub-criteria weights (Slope, Global Horizontal Irradiance (GHI), proximity to roads, proximity to residential areas, proximity to powerlines) before performing spatial MCDA. The result showed that ‘the most suitable’ and ‘suitable’ areas for the establishment of solar plants are in the south and southwest of the region, representing about 17.53% of the study area. The ‘unsuitable’ areas account for about 10.17% of the total study area, which is mainly concentrated in the northern part. The rest of the region is further classified into ‘moderate’ and ‘restricted’ areas, which account for 46.42% and 25.88%, respectively. The most suitable area for potential solar energy, yields approximately 1905 Kwh/Kwp in terms of PVOUT. The proposed framework also has the potential to be applied to other regions nationally and internationally. This work contributes a reproducible GIS workflow for a low-cost but accurate adoption of a solar energy plan to achieve sustainable development goals.

Study of bathymetry in determining Nuclear Power Plant Site in Gosong Beach Waters, West Kalimantan

Gosong Beach waters are located in Bengkayang Regency West Kalimantan, where the water conditions are influenced by the South China Sea. This study aimed to determine the shape of the bottom morphology profile (bathymetry). The bottom morphology of the water was used as initial data to determine the location of nuclear sites in the study area. Bathymetry measurements were conducted using a single beam echosounder corrected by tidal data to determine the chart datum value, then used to correct sea depth for accuracy. The measurement of tidal data was conducted for 15 days in March 2021 with an interval of 1 hour. The results showed that the type of tidal obtained was mixed tide mixed with the double daily slope with Formzhal (F) value 0.77. The depth of the waters at the study site ranges from 0.9 to 8.45 meters. The average value of the coastal slope shows that spatially there are variations in the slope class with the percentage value ranging from 0.13 to 2.29% which is included in the classification of flat coastal slopes.

Compost Plant Site Selection for Food Waste Using GIS Based Multicriteria Analysis

Marketplace waste collection is one of the crucial services provided by the district municipalities in Turkey. A significant amount of food waste is periodically collected from marketplaces. However, an important opportunity for recycling and mitigation climate change is missed because these waste are sent to landfills. Composting, one of the waste management technologies applied to organic waste to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and produce compost, is often preferred for the management of marketplace waste. This study aims to determine suitable locations for compost facilities to manage marketplace waste with the help of GIS considering economic, environmental, and topographic factors in Izmir, Turkey. There are 199 marketplaces in Izmir and each has at least one market a week. Each marketplace was weighted by means of population served by using location-allocation analysis since the amount of waste collected from the marketplaces is not known. First, an exclusion analysis was performed to remove limited use areas. Then, a preference analysis was performed. Factors affecting plant site selection process for composting marketplace waste, including marketplace locations and weights, were determined. Since all factors do not have equal importance, the analytical hierarchy process was used to determine weights for each factor based on their influence. The study area was spatially evaluated for each preference factor and a suitability map was created for each factor. Finally, a high-resolution final suitability map was obtained by combining each factor’s suitability map along with their weights. Areas with a suitability index greater than 80% have been defined as suitable areas for compost facility installation. The results indicate that there are 323 potential locations suitable for compost facilities in Izmir.

Survey and Risk Assessment of Contaminants in Soil from a Nitrogenous Fertilizer Plant Located in North China

China is the world’s largest consumer of fertilizer, with fertilizer plants widely distributed throughout the country. With the removal and closing of fertilizer factories in recent years, pollutant surveys and risk assessments (human health risks) for these sites have become increasingly necessary. However, there has been little research on contaminated fertilizer factory sites. This study aimed to characterize the distribution of pollutants, assess the health risk of the site, and calculate the remediation area and volume in a typical fertilizer plant site in North China. A total of 443 samples were collected in 2019; they indicated that the study site had high concentrations of copper (Cu), ammonia-nitrogen (NH3-N), total petroleum hydrocarbons (TPH), and fluoride at maximum ratios (the ratio of the highest value of all test data for a particular pollutant to the standard value of the pollutant) of 3.30, 2.55, 19.69, and 1.10, respectively. The health risk assessment results suggested that some hazard quotients exceeded the threshold safe level (>1 established by environmental regulations). The risk control values of soil were 2000 mg/g (Cu), 826 mg/g (TPH), and 1549 mg/g (NH3-N), and the total remediation soil volume was 72860.71 m3. The results provided basic information on soil pollution control and environmental management in a contaminated fertilizer plant site.