Spatial distribution of trace metals in urban soilsudand road dusts : an example from Manchester, UK

摘要

Urban soil quality is of concern under current UK contaminated land legislation in terms of potentialudimpacts on human health, due to the legacy of industrial, mining and waste disposal activities and theudfact that soils can act as a sink for potentially harmful substances (PHS) in the urban environment. As partudof the the Geochemical Baseline Survey of the Environment (G-BASE) project of the British GeologicaludSurvey (BGS), 27 UK cities have been surveyed to establish baselines and assess the quality of urbanudsoils. The G-BASE soil geochemical dataset for Manchester forms the basis of this project. Anotherudmedium that is a likely sink for PHS in urban environments is road dust sediment (RDS). RDS forms asudan accumulation of particles on pavements and road surfaces, and has been shown to be both spatiallyudand temporally highly variable in composition, as it is more susceptible to remobilisation and transport.udRDS has been documented as carrying a high loading of contaminant species, including significantudamounts of trace metals. Geochemical data from both soils and RDS, despite having different properties,udare essential for environmental assessment in urban areas. Although studies of PHS in RDS and soilsudhave been published, little is known about the spatial, geochemical and mineralogical linkages betweenudthese two media. The aim of this research is to define and establish these linkages, and produce noveludmineralogical data on the PHS–particulate relationships within soils and RDS.