| In recent times, despite the great technical and methodological advances in the field of facility siting, there has been a decline in successful siting attempts for those facilities perceived as having deleterious effects in the environment. Most siting processes take into consideration physical or environmental criteria and ignore or fail to address public demands, characteristics, and present community conditions, contributing to the failure of the siting efforts. To create the adequate conditions for a successful siting approach, public awareness, public participation, and possible public opposition should be properly predicted and carefully considered in the siting process. The present study thoroughly investigates the facility siting process, taking into consideration environmental criteria as well as social and community factors. This study considers the siting of two facilities, a regional landfill and a regional airport in the County of Lethbridge, in the Province of Alberta, with the assistance of Geographical Information Systems (GIS). |
