Biofuel plants site selection integrating multi-criteria decision aid methods and GIS techniques in Algeria: A case study of Ouargla

Abstract

This research addresses the problem of determining the most suitable sites for locating biogas plants using biomass (municipal waste, animal manure and palm waste) as a feedstock in the province of Ouargla (Algeria). A Multicriteria Spatial Decision Support System is developed to tackle this complex multicriteria decision-making problem, involving constraints and criteria such as environmental, economic, safety, and social. The approach followed combines the use of a Geographic Information System (GIS) to manage and process spatial information with the flexibility of Multi-criteria Decision Aid (MCDA) to assess factual information (e.g. slope, Roads and population) with more subjective information (e.g., expert opinion). The MCDA method used in this work is AHP, an outranking-type method that yields a classification of the possible alternatives. As a result, suitable and unsuitable areas were identified for receiving the biofuel production plant project, where the total suitable area is estimated as 79.82 % (130,303.527 km2), and the inappropriate area is 20.17 % (32,929.4734 km2). The final indicator model for areas that can receive a biofuel plant project was grouped into four categories as “very low suitability”, “low suitability”, “moderate suitability” and “high suitability” with a manual interval classification method. The results indicated that 0.58 % (765.234 km2) has very low suitability, 1.52 % (1,992.591 km2) has low suitability, 7.34% (8,704.2756 km2) has moderate suitability and 90.54 % (117,985.24 km2) has high suitability for biomass powered biofuel production installation system.

This research addresses the problem of determining the most suitable sites for locating biogas plants using biomass (municipal waste, animal manure and palm waste) as a feedstock in the province of Ouargla (Algeria). A Multicriteria Spatial Decision Support System is developed to tackle this complex multicriteria decision-making problem, involving constraints and criteria such as environmental, economic, safety, and social. The approach followed combines the use of a Geographic Information System (GIS) to manage and process spatial information with the flexibility of Multi-criteria Decision Aid (MCDA) to assess factual information (e.g. slope, Roads and population) with more subjective information (e.g., expert opinion). The MCDA method used in this work is AHP, an outranking-type method that yields a classification of the possible alternatives. As a result, suitable and unsuitable areas were identified for receiving the biofuel production plant project, where the total suitable area is estimated as 79.82 % (130,303.527 km2), and the inappropriate area is 20.17 % (32,929.4734 km2). The final indicator model for areas that can receive a biofuel plant project was grouped into four categories as “very low suitability”, “low suitability”, “moderate suitability” and “high suitability” with a manual interval classification method. The results indicated that 0.58 % (765.234 km2) has very low suitability, 1.52 % (1,992.591 km2) has low suitability, 7.34% (8,704.2756 km2) has moderate suitability and 90.54 % (117,985.24 km2) has high suitability for biomass powered biofuel production installation system.

يعالج هذا البحث مشكلة تحديد أنسب المواقع لتحديد مواقع مصانع الغاز الحيوي باستخدام الكتلة الحيوية (نفايات البلدية، روث الحيوانات ومخلفات النخيل) كمادة وسيطة في مدينة ورقلة (الجزائر). تم تطوير نظام دعم القرار المكاني متعدد المعايير لمعالجة مشكلة صنع القرار المعقدة متعددة المعايير هذه، والتي تتضمن قيودًا ومعايير مثل البيئية والاقتصادية والسلامة والاجتماعية. يجمع النهج المتبع بين استخدام نظام المعلومات الجغرافية (GIS) لإدارة ومعالجة المعلومات المكانية مع مرونة تطبيق القرار متعدد المعايير (MCDA) لتقييم المعلومات الواقعية (مثل المنحدرات والطرق والسكان) مع المزيد من المعلومات الذاتية (على سبيل المثال.، رأي الخبراء). طريقة MCDA المستخدمة في هذا العمل هي AHP، وهي طريقة من النوع الذي يعطي تصنيفًا للبدائل الممكنة. ونتيجة لذلك، تم تحديد المناطق المناسبة وغير المناسبة لاستلام مشروع مصنع إنتاج الوقود الحيوي، حيث تقدر المساحة الإجمالية المناسبة بـ% 79.82 (130303.527 km2)، والمساحة غير الملائمة 20.17 % (32929.4734 km2). تم تجميع نموذج المؤشر النهائي للمناطق التي يمكن أن تتلقى مشروعًا لمصنع الوقود الحيوي إلى أربع فئات على أنها "ملائمة منخفضة جدًا" و "ملائمة منخفضة" و "ملاءمة معتدلة" و "ملاءمة عالية" باستخدام طريقة التصنيف اليدوي للفاصل الزمني. أشارت النتائج إلى أن% 0.58 (765.234 km2) ذات ملاءمة منخفضة للغاية، و %1.52 (1992.591 km2) ذات ملاءمة منخفضة، و %7.34 (8,704.2756 km2) ملائمة بشكل معتدل و % 90.54 (km2117985.2 (لديها ملاءمة عالية لتركيب نظام إنتاج الوقود الحيوي الذي يعمل بالطاقة الحيوية. en_