Author(s)

Ali Ibrahim Naibbi, Umar Musa Umar

Geography Department, Northwest University, Kano, Nigeria.

This paper describes a research project that has been conducted as part of the Kano Municipal waste management strategy. The aim is to quantify and to identify the existing locations of waste disposal sites by mapping their spatial distribution within the metropolitan Kano. QUICKBIRD satellite imageries; locations of existing waste disposal sites collected using Global Positioning System (GPS); and topographical map (1:5000 scale) of Kano metropolis were used to generate data for the study. The data were prepared and analysed using ArcMap 10.2.1 and Erdas Imagine 11 software to produce the spatial distribution maps for solid waste disposal sites within the metropolis. The result shows that out of the 300 existing waste disposal sites assessed, the city has fairly well-distributed waste disposal sites. Conversely, the disposal sites are more clustered in the centre of the metropolis than the outskirts. However, about 80 percent of the sites are either located very close to roads, settlements or water bodies. Also, while about 92 percent of the existing waste disposal locations are open space, only about 7 percent are containers (closed dumping sites). Correspondingly, about 89 percent are authorised dumping sites and only about 11 percent are unauthorised illegal. The study recommends that policymakers should intervene and relocate the existing unauthorized dump sites to more suitable areas.

Solid Waste, Waste Disposal Sites, Waste Management, REMASAB

Naibbi, A. and Umar, U. (2017) An Appraisal of Spatial Distribution of Solid Waste Disposal Sites in Kano Metropolis, Nigeria. Journal of Geoscience and Environment Protection, 5, 24-36. doi: 10.4236/gep.2017.511003.