Analyzing landfill suitability in terms of streams, elevation, cover class, soil drainage, and distance to landfills is very important and useful. These analysis provide information about specific identities in a place (such as Gallatin County in this project), so as to attain a prioritized suitability for landfills; for example, if the priority is determining where to put landfills based on cover class, the map of this category is used. These types of decisions are centered around the effects on humans, as seen in the Sahagun article, therefore it is important to note how each category analyzed affects humans as well.
Continuing with the cover class category, it is also possible within the category to make distinctions between places which could potentially sustain landfills and those which can not. When reclassifying the cover class category, I listed the cover classes of water and cropland as completely unsuitable (entering NoData in their fields); because landfills possibly represent danger in terms of toxicity and birth defects, they should by no means be found in these cover classes. Areas of water and cropland are of the most important resources needed by humans, therefore these should be most taken care of so as to avoid their contamination (which would lead to negative impacts on humans).
Knowing what kinds of toxic elements may be present in landfills as well as at what proximity they represent a danger to humans is also very important. In this case, we can put emphasis on the category of distance to landfills. By using this analysis, we can interpret the distance to landfills in terms of lethality for humans; how close to a toxic element is too close? At what proximity can PCB's (a cancer causing element mentioned by Sahagun) affect humans? We can also think about runoff of toxins from landfills to streams as a problem. If landfills are too close to streams, their contents may be carried off to the water; we see that the stream buffers category helps us analyze what the right distance of landfills from streams can be.
In similar forms, the soil drainage and slope of elevation categories help display how toxins can be carried off to places where they would have a negative impact on humans. The final analysis category, allows an investigation of all categories displayed in one map. It is important to analyze all of the categories together in order to account for overlaps; perhaps, places which are definitely not suitable can be more easily differentiated. This kind of analysis may also lead to the discovery of places in which it is reasonable to place landfills.
Therefore we see the importance of making educated and cautious decisions about the placement as well as the expansion of landfills. In Sahagun's article, expansion of a landfill in the Central valley is detained until further tests determine whether or not this creates a negative impact on humans. Because water is so necessary for human survival, efforts to clean already contaminated water are also being considered by environmental agencies.
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