Background and Objective: The increase in waste at integrated urban waste centers, along with the problems and adverse environmental consequences due to their inappropriate establishment have become more apparent. This research was conducted with the aim of determining and investigating environmental pollution in urban waste integration management centers.
Materials and Methods: This research investigated the environmental pollutants in the integrated waste center in Koohak at various distances ranging from 0 to 900 meters. Four main criteria—waste, water pollution, air pollution and sound pollution—were determined, each with 16 sub-criteria. The map of each criterion and sub-criteria were multiplied by the coefficients they received from the weights obtained using the Analytical Network Process (ANP) method. By combining the criteria using the Weighted Linear Combination (WLC) method and superimposing them, finally, the studied area was ultimately classified into three classes: inappropriate, medium, and suitable.
Results: Air pollution, with a weight of 0.26, had the highest rating compared to the other three criteria. Noise pollution (0.25), water pollution (0.24) and waste-related criteria (0.23) were ranked next. The results of the Kruskal-Wallis test indicated a significant difference in pollutant concentrations between different stations (p<0.05). Additionally, the results show that the average concentration of pollutants at distances of 0-300 meters differed significantly from those at all other distances (p<0.05). After determining the suitable zones using the WLC method, the results showed that 62.5 percent of the criteria were approved by the environmental organization.
Conclusion: By examining the results of the methods used in this research, it can be concluded that the combination of ANP and WLC methods provide effectivee results. However, uncertainty in subjective decisions and time constraints in decision-making have posed challenges in assessing waste collection in integrated urban waste centers.
