Recent advances on our understanding of the processes underlining settlements at Municipal Solid Waste (MSW) landfills indicate that waste settlements reflect waste biodegradation activity and are varying significantly with space and time. Following a brief review of these recent findings, the use of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) in estimating field settlements will be presented. UAVs can assist in the creation of three-dimensional landfill models that can be then used to estimate the spatial and temporal variation of waste settlements and their implications on landfill covers and post-closure development. Examples from actual landfill sites will be presented and recommendations on conducting these measurements will be provided.
