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Technical Memorandum
Project:

Town of Gumby Landfill Terrain Analysis

Client:

Ian Smith, M.Sc.

Subject:

GISC9312 GIS Applications

Date:

May 15, 2015

Prepared By: Matt Reaume, BES

1. Introduction
Waste management is a growing concern in our world today, and can be defined as the generation,
prevention, monitoring, treatment, and handling of solid wastes. Landfills have been created to store
wastes, but as an increased amount of waste is placed every year, the elevation of wastes increases. As
waste continues to increase, controlling the amount of waste in it is a necessity, as well as implementing
new technology to combat the increased amount of waste within a landfill.
The Ontario Ministry of the Environment has declared a landfill can reach a maximum allowable
elevation profile, known as final contours. The Town of Gumby is currently under review and must
perform a terrain analysis on their existing landfill. The Municipality that operates the landfill has
requested the landfill to be examined, which will ultimately determine the remaining volume of waste
that may be placed in the landfill to reach the final contours surface. Within this report, illustrations
of the landfill will be provided that show existing areas to cut, as they are above the required elevation,
and landfill areas that still have space for future waste. Also, a 3D cartographic map will be provided
to show these areas, along with a detailed description of how much more waste the municipality can
place within the landfill before it reaches capacity.
The Municipalities survey staff has collected 8,525 3D points over a period of two days, using a DGPS
(Trimble 5700) at various elevations. The Ministry of the Environment has provided final allowed
contours, under their certificate of approval. Also, a landfill footprint has been given by the Ministry
of the Environment to ensure waste in within this boundary. Along with the data that has been
provided a buffer of 10 meters has been used to show the landfill that must be removed outside the
landfill footprint, as it overlaps property boundaries.

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2. Methodology
A methodology was created to describe the procedures that were carried out using a geographic
information systems software (ArcGIS) to determine the remaining volume of waste that may be
placed in the landfill to reach the final contours surface. The procedures outlined below use the data
that was provided to create various types of surfaces needed for a proper analysis of the specified
landfill area in the Town of Gumby.

2.1 Creating a TIN Surface

A Triangulated Irregular Network (TIN) is a used to represent surface morphology. In this case, two
TINs were created based upon elevation. One was created to show the existing landfill surface and
the other shows the final approved landfill surface. The existing landfill surface was created based off
the GPS points collected by the survey staff, and the final approved landfill surface was created based
off the Ministry of the Environments final contours. The result of the creation of the TINs are shown
below in Figure 1.

Figure 1: Creation of TIN Surfaces

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The elevation in meters on both sets of images, the landfill footprint, and the 10m buffer. The
elevation shows how there is a noticeable hill on both sets of images, and due to the multiple points
that were collected, the existing landfill surface illustrates a berm on the east side. This berm could
have an effect on the amount of landfill that currently exists within the footprint. It should be noted
that both TINs were clipped to the landfill footprint afterwards for statistical purposes in Section 4 to
show the amount of landfill within the footprint and outside the footprint within the 10 meter buffer.

2.2 Creating a Raster Surface

Raster surfaces were created with a cell size of 1 meter after the creation of the TINs in order to shows
the differences between the two surfaces. This cell size means that every pixel within the raster surface
is 1m x 1m (1m2), which means each value is 1m in height, as well as length. For the purpose of this
project, a cell size of 1 meter allows for an easy interpretation of the elevation of landfill within the
boundary licensed by the Ministry of the Environment. The result of the raster surfaces created for
this project are shown below in Figure 2.

Figure 2: Creation of Raster Surfaces

The raster surfaces that were created display different results due to the TINs that they were created
from. The image on the left is the existing landfill surface that used the GPS points from the survey
team, and the image on the right shows the final contours provided by the Ministry of the

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Environment. These surfaces are much smoother than the TINs, even though they use the same
information, because of the small cell size (1m2). The raster surfaces are necessary for statistical
purposes that show how much space can still be used within the landfill footprint.

3. Three-Dimensional Visualization of Landfill Capacity

The aforementioned raster surfaces generated can be used to display the differences in elevation can
be displayed showing the areas that are over and under capacity within the landfill. These differences
can be shown by subtracting the existing raster from the final contours raster. Using 3D geographical
information systems software, an illustration can be created that shows the differences between these
two raster surfaces. Figure 3 and Figure 4, displays cartographic maps of a terrain analysis for the
landfill in the Town of Gumby. Figure 3 shows a birds eye view of the landfill, and Figure 4 shows a
side angle view of the landfill, both which can be seen on the following pages.

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Figure 3: Bird's Eye View of Landfill

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Figure 4: Side Angle View of Landfill

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The landfill terrain analysis images display the difference in elevation (m) between the existing landfill
surface and the approved final contours surface. The negative elevation values mean that the areas
highlighted in shades of red are over capacity, and must be reduced. The positive elevation values
mean that the areas highlighted in shades of green are under capacity, and can store more landfill. The
elevation value of 0 meters means that no more landfill can be placed, as it has already reached the
capacity that was set by the Ministry of the Environments final contours. The buffer created shown
on Figure 3 and Figure 4 illustrates how there is landfill outside of the landfill footprint, which must
be addressed because it crosses the boundary set by the Ministry of the Environment.
Further statistical analysis will be provided in Section 5, which will outline the amount of landfill that
can still be placed within the footprint, the amount of landfill that must be removed outside the
footprint, but within the 10m buffered area, along with a predicted time frame the landfill can continue
to operate before maximum capacity is reached. The negative values mean these coloured areas are
higher than the approved contours set by the Ministry of the Environment, and the positive values
mean these coloured areas are lower than the approved contours, thus equaling more room to store
landfill.

4. Cut/Fill Analysis
Using geographic information systems software (ArcGIS) a cut/fill analysis was created to show the
areas of landfill that are over and under capacity. Figure 5 on the following page, displays the blue
areas that must be removed under the Ministry of the Environments guidelines, as these areas are
over the landfill limit, and the red areas are under the landfill limit.

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Figure 5: Cut/Fill Analysis of Landfill

By referring to Figure 5, this image shows how the dominant area within the landfill footprint
represent the areas that are under (red) the approved contours and over the approved contours (blue)
set by the guidelines of the Ministry of the Environment.

5. Data Analysis
Given all the data provided within this project to determine the remaining amount of landfill that can
be place within the footprint set by the guidelines of the Ministry of the Environment, a detailed
analysis can be done to determine the length of time before the landfill space is occupied. The number
of households in the town has stabilized and is approximately 10,200 with an average of 2.5 persons
within each household, which approximates to 25,000 people within the town. The compaction rate
of the landfill given new technological advances equals 0.6 tonne of waste per m3, which leaves roughly
126,304.13m3 of available space that can be filled with landfill, as seen in Section 4, Figure 5 (left image
showing landfill within the footprint).

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Table 1: Town of Gumby Stats

Parameter

Value

Number of Households
Mean Occupancy Rate
Population
Compaction Rate
Volume of Landfill Space to Fill

Unit

10,200
2.5
25,500
0.6
126,304.13 m3

-Population/Number of Households
Persons
Tonne of waste per m3
m3

Figure 6 below, displays a scatterplot of the waste generation rate from the years 1999 to 2019. These
years were chosen because it shows an approximate value of the waste generation rate 5 years into the
future. Table 2, also displays similar stats to the scatterplot seen above, ultimately showing the waste
generation rate will remain stable over the next 5 years

Landfill Generation Rate

Waste Generation Rate (Tonnes)

0.7
0.6
0.5
0.4
0.3
0.2
0.1
0
1998

2000

2002

2004

2006

2008

2010

2012

2014

2016

2018

2020

2022

Year
Figure 6: Landfill Generation Rate

Table 2 below, displays similar stats as Figure 6 shown above, which highlights the year and waste
generation rate.
Table 2: Actual Waste Landfill per Capita
Year

Waste Generation Rate (To Landfill)

Tonnes/Capita/Year

1999

0.65
0.60
0.49

2000
2001

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2002
2003
2004
2005
2006
2007
2008
2009
2010
2011
2012
2013
2014
*2015
*2016
*2017
*2018
*2019
*2020

0.44
0.40
0.35
0.33
0.31
0.31
0.30
0.31
0.30
0.30
0.31
0.305
0.305
*0.305
*0.305
*0.305
*0.305
*0.305
*0.305

Figure 6 and Table 2 details how the waste generation rate has decreased from 1999 until 2008, and
then stabilizes at approximately 0.3 tonnes per year. This statistical analysis shows that the landfill
generation rate will be stagnant for years to come, unless population drastically increases in the Town
of Gumby.
Given all the data provided and the statistics from the cartographic maps that were created in ArcGIS,
the landfill that must be cut within the landfill footprint is 8,484.73m3 and the remaining space existing
in the landfill footprint after the landfill has been brought below the approved contour lines equals
126,304.13m3. It should be noted that a 10m buffer was created around the landfill footprint that
highlighted approximately 7,168.14m3 worth of area that must be cut down due to landfill crossing
the boundaries of the landfill footprint, determined by the Ministry of the Environment. Table 3
below, shows the values of landfill within the footprint and the 10m buffer, and the remaining
calculations show how the total estimation of years remaining has been calculated.

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Table 3: Landfill Stats - Cut/Fil Analysis

Area Within Landfill Footprint

Area With 10m Buffer

Areas to Fill
134,788.86m3
140,884.43m3

Areas to Cut
8,484.73m3
15,652.87m3

Tonnes of Waste per Year

10,200 houses x 2.5 persons per house x 0.305 tonnes of waste per capitia per year
= 7777.5 tonnes of waste per year
Capacity of Waste Remaining in the Landfill Footprint
126,304.13m3 of landfill remaining x 0.6 tonnes per m3
= 75,782.48 tonnes of waste
Estimated Remaining Years of the Landfill
75,782.48 tonnes of waste available / 7,777.5 tonnes of waste per year
= 9.7 years
Therefore, approximately 10 years of operation still remains in the landfill within the Town of Gumby,
this is likely caused by new technologies implemented in the town, along with a stabilized population.

6. Conclusion
The landfills terrain analysis and the estimated calculations provided, allows the Town of Gumby to
have approximately 10 years remaining for the landfill that was examined in this report. The current
landfill has approximately 76,000 tonnes of compressed waste existing, along with 126,304.13m3 of
free space remaining. It should be noted that the area within a 10m buffer must be addressed as soon
as possible, as the landfill does cross the boundary lines set by the Ministry of the Environment.
There are multiple areas existing in the landfill that must be attended to, but the landfill will not reach
its full capacity until the year 2025.

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7. Biography
Smith, I. (2015). GISC9312 GIS Applications: Deliverable D2 Terms of Reference. Raster Based
Analysis of Terrain Surfaces. Niagara College Canada.