Mapping the Finer-Scale Carcinogenic Risk of Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons (PAHs) in Urban Soil—A Case Study of Shenzhen City, China

Dongxiang Chen, Han Zhao, Jun Zhao, Zhenci Xu and Shaohua Wu
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Dongxiang Chen: Key Laboratory of Urban Land Resources Monitoring and Simulation, Ministry of Land and Resources, Shenzhen 510034, China
Han Zhao: Key Laboratory of Urban Land Resources Monitoring and Simulation, Ministry of Land and Resources, Shenzhen 510034, China
Jun Zhao: Key Laboratory of Urban Land Resources Monitoring and Simulation, Ministry of Land and Resources, Shenzhen 510034, China
Zhenci Xu: Department of Geography, University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong 999077, China
Shaohua Wu: Institute of Land and Urban-rural Development, Zhejiang University of Finance & Economics, Hangzhou 310018, China

IJERPH, 2020, vol. 17, issue 18, 1-13

Abstract: The high-precision mapping of urban health risk is a difficult problem due to the high heterogeneity of the urban environment. In this paper, the spatial distribution characteristics of the Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbon (PAH) content in the urban soil of Shenzhen City were analyzed through a field investigation. We propose an approach for improving the accuracy and spatial resolution of PAH carcinogenic risk assessment by integrating the pollutant distribution and Location Based Service (LBS) data. The results showed that the concentration of PAHs in the high-density urban area was 271.67 ng g −1 , which was 27.2% higher than that in the green area. Although the average carcinogenic risk of PAHs in the surface soil of Shenzhen city was less than 10 −6 , the maximum carcinogenic risk at some sample sites exceeded 10 −6 , which indicates a potential health risk. The LBS data were effective for high-precision mapping of the population distribution. According to the combination relationship between the risk threshold of pollutants and the population density, four types of risk zones were proposed. Among them, 6.9% of the areas had a high-risk and high population density and 15.8% of the areas were high-risk with a low population density. These two kinds of zones were the critical areas for controlling risk. The fine-scale risk mapping approach for determining the carcinogenic risk of soil PAHs integrating pollutant distribution and location based service data was demonstrated to be a useful tool for explicit spatial risk management. This tool could provide spatial insights and decision support for urban health-risk management and pollution prevention.

Keywords: risk assessment; spatial analysis; PAHs; carcinogenic risk (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
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