Mapping Heavy Metal Concentrations in Beach Sands Using GIS and Portable XRF Data

摘要

It is necessary to investigate the contamination of beach sands to ensure water safety, as they may contain potentially toxic trace elements. Tourists, oil spills, or replenishing sands can cause beach sand contamination. In this study, heavy metal contamination maps of lead (Pb) and zinc (Zn) were created for Wolpo Beach, on the eastern coast of Korea, using portable X-ray fluorescence and geographic information systems (GIS). Interpolation methods, such as kriging and inverse distance weighting, were used in this study and their results were compared. Understanding the spatial variation of potentially toxic trace elements in beach sand is necessary to determine suitable measures for preventing contamination. Sufficient sand data for understanding spatial patterns can be acquired by using rapid portable X-ray fluorescence analysis. As a result, we could create heavy metal concentration maps for the sand of Wolpo Beach. It was confirmed that the southern part of the target area is more contaminated than the northern part. However, there are no sand areas with highly concentrated heavy metal levels. In addition, no sample data exceed the soil contamination standards. This study demonstrates that portable X-ray fluorescence and geographic information systems can be utilized for investigating and preventing the contamination of beach sands by creating heavy metal concentration maps.