Abandoned Solid Waste Final Disposal Sites in the Sotavento Region of the State of Veracruz, Mexico, using GIS tools

In Mexico, when municipal solid waste final disposal sites are closed or complete their life cycle, municipal authorities abandon them without carrying out remediation processes. In the Sotavento Region, state of Veracruz, Mexico, through geographic information systems, interviews with municipalities and field visits, 9 abandoned dumpsites were located: two sanitary landfills, two controlled final disposal sites called controlled dumps, and five uncontrolled final disposal sites known as open-air dumps. The results using Google Earth made it possible to determine that these dumps, as a whole, occupied an area of 366,852 m2 , with an accumulated volume of waste of 2,015,500m3 and an estimated quantity of 2,498,571 tons of confined waste without control. Such results represent a series of environmental impacts that are commonly not detected and whose knowledge can be the starting point for its closure in accordance with the applicable Mexican regulations