Temporal and Spatial Assessment of Landfill Gas Emission Near the City of Regina Landfill

Abstract

Urbanization and rapid population growth have led to significant waste generation, which is estimated to be around 3.4 billion tonnes globally in the upcoming 3 decades. In North America, landfilling is still the major waste treatment method; despite numerous stringent environmental regulations and public education programs on waste recycling. Unsustainable disposal practices and poorly managed landfills may have adverse effects on our environment, particularly from the fugitive emissions of landfill gases and toxic pollutants. As such, identification of problematic waste disposal sites and their fugitive emissions are of practical interest. The objective of the current study is to use land surface temperature as a proxy method to detect potential fugitive emission spots and their displacements at the City of Regina landfill using satellite imagery. Literature suggests higher land surface temperatures in disposal sites originate from the decomposition of organics, producing fugitive emissions of methane gas. Land surface temperature at the study area is computed using a set of empirical equations. Using a relative scale, hot spots at the Regina site are identified. Since applied remote sensing imagery is publicly available, it is believed that proposed method is equally applicable to other geo-spatial analysis of waste sites. Preliminary results for study area suggest that fugitive emissions occur near northern and southern central regions of the landfill. The southern region is larger compared to the northern one. This might be because of higher deposited waste with a higher proportion of organic material and maturity of waste, since methane gas release mostly comes from anaerobic process which occurs after aerobic decomposition.