Analysis of Heavy Metal Sources in the Soil of Riverbanks Across an Urbanization Gradient

Shudi Zuo, Shaoqing Dai, Yaying Li, Jianfeng Tang and Yin Ren
Additional contact information
Shudi Zuo: Key Laboratory of Urban Environment and Health, Institute of Urban Environment, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Jimei Avenue 1799, Xiamen 361021, China
Shaoqing Dai: Key Laboratory of Urban Environment and Health, Institute of Urban Environment, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Jimei Avenue 1799, Xiamen 361021, China
Yaying Li: Ningbo Urban Environment Observation and Research Station-NUEORS, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Ningbo 315800, China
Jianfeng Tang: Ningbo Urban Environment Observation and Research Station-NUEORS, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Ningbo 315800, China
Yin Ren: Key Laboratory of Urban Environment and Health, Institute of Urban Environment, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Jimei Avenue 1799, Xiamen 361021, China

IJERPH, 2018, vol. 15, issue 10, 1-23

Abstract: Regional soil quality issues arising from rapid urbanization have received extensive attention. The riverbank that runs through a city is representative of urbanization gradient transformation. Thirty soil samples in the Yangtze River Delta urban agglomeration were collected and analyzed for the concentrations of seven analytes. Correlation, principle component analysis, cluster analysis and GeoDetector models suggested that the four groups (Cr-Ni-Cu, Cu-Zn-As-Sb, Cd and Pb) shared the same sources in the core urban region; five groups (Cr-Ni-Cu-Zn, As, Cd, Sb and Pb) in the suburbs and three groups (Cr-Ni, Cu-Zn-Cd-Sb-Pb and As) in the exurbs. GeoDetector methods not only validated the results of the three other methods, but also provided more possible impact factors. Besides the direct influences, the interaction effects among factors were quantified. Interactive combination with strong nonlinear increment changed from between-two-weak factors in the central region to between-strong-and-weak factors in the suburbs. In the exurbs, the stronger interaction effects were observed between strong and weak factors. Therefore, the GeoDetector model, which provided more detailed information of artificial sources could be used as a tool for identifying the potential factors of toxic elements and offering scientific basis for the development of subsequent pollution reduction strategies.

Keywords: soil heavy metals; quantitative source apportionment; principal component analysis-multiple linear regression (PCA-MLR); GeoDetector model; GIS spatial analysis method (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/15/10/2175/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/15/10/2175/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:15:y:2018:i:10:p:2175-:d:173719

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().