Determining rural areas vulnerable to illegal dumping using GIS techniques. Case study: Neamt county, Romania

The paper aims to mapping the potential vulnerable areas to illegal dumping of household waste from rural areas in the extra- Carpathian region of Neamt County. These areas are ordinary in the proximity of built-up areas and buffers areas of 1 km were delimited for every locality. Based on various map layers in vector formats (land use, rivers, built-up areas, roads etc) an assessment method is performed to highlight the potential areas vulnerable to illegal dumping inside these buffer areas at local scale. The results are correlated to field observations and current situation of waste management systems. The maps outline local disparities due to various geographical conditions of county. This approach is a necessary tool in EIA studies particularly for rural waste management systems at local and regional scale which are less studied in current literature than urban areas.