Itzel Isunza MANRIQUE PhD

Use of geophysical surface methods to quantify solid waste deposits in view of Enhanced Landfill Mining (ELFM).

This work has been developed as part of RAWFILL project,  which is focused on the solid waste sector in the NW Europe region. Based on enhanced landfill inventories and decision support tools, the project aims to develop a standard framework that allow public and private sectors to make economically informed decisions about launching a landfill mining project for a given site. In addition, it uses an innovative landfill characterization based on site specific and multi-methodological geophysical surveys, combined with guided sampling.

In this context, we use a variety of surface geophysical methods to quantitatively characterize engineered and non-engineered landfills of different composition, ages, geometry, etc., located in distinct geological environments. We apply the electrical resistivity tomography method, induced polarization, electromagnetic induction, magnetometry, seismic refraction tomography, multiple analysis of surface waves and horizontal-to-vertical noise spectral ratio. In addition, we use a probabilistic approach and machine learning algorithms on one hand to jointly interpret the geophysical data and on the other hand, to quantify landfill geometries and solid waste deposits that lead to resource distribution models of the sites. As this information is important to assess the economic potential of each landfill, we also integrate the uncertainty associated to the geophysical data processing using ground truth data from sampling and probability distributions.

For more information on the project, the investigated landfills and the geophysical results, see https://www.nweurope.eu/projects/project-search/supporting-a-new-circular-economy-for-raw-materials-recovered-from-landfills/.

The project is funded by Interreg NW Europe and the Wallon Region.

Co-funded by the Walloon Region

Publications