Host: Japan Society of Material Cycles and Waste Management
In arid climates, evaporation considerably exceeds precipitation so that the source of leachate is mainly limited to the water derived from the waste in the landfill. This also implies that leachate generation will eventually cease, and that the waste inside the landfill will gradually dry out. In this study, a simple water balance model was created and applied to estimate the time period for which leachate was generated using meteorological data obtained in an arid climate. Several meteorological stations located in arid climates were selected according to the Koppen-Geiger climate classification. The results showed that leachate was generated only for the period in which municipal solid waste (MSW) was disposed of, and the greater part of the precipitation was consumed by evaporation. Almost no leachate was generated after the end of the disposal operation. This scenario applied for all of the modeled regions. The quantity of water inside the landfill was also calculated. The results from all locations indicated that the quantity of water in the landfill started to decrease after the completion of the waste disposal operation, which implies that the waste inside the landfill will subsequently dry out.
