Statistical and spatial assessment of soil heavy metal contamination in areas of poorly recorded, complex sources of pollution Part 1: factor analysis for contamination assessment
A. Korre, Statistical and spatial assessment of soil heavy metal contamination in areas of poorly recorded, complex sources of pollution Part 1: factor analysis for contamination assessment, STOCH ENV R, 13(4), 1999, pp. 260-287
Citations number
33
Categorie Soggetti
Environmental Engineering & Energy
Journal title
STOCHASTIC ENVIRONMENTAL RESEARCH AND RISK ASSESSMENT
The assessment of soil heavy metal contamination and the quantification of
its sources and spatial extent represent a serious challenge to the environ
mental scientists and engineers. To date, statistical and spatial analysis
tools have been used successfully to assess the amount and spatial distribu
tion of soil contamination. However, these techniques require vast amounts
of samples and a good historical record of the study area. Furthermore, the
y cannot be applied in cases of complex or poorly recorded contamination an
d provide only a qualitative assessment of the pollution sources. The autho
r has developed a methodology that combines statistical and geostatistical
analysis tools with geographic information systems for the quantitative and
spatial assessment of contamination sources.
This paper focuses on the techniques that may be employed to explore the st
ructure of a soil data set. Soil contamination data from Lavrio old mine si
te in Greece were used to illustrate the methodology. Through the research,
it was found that principal component and factor analysis tools delineate
the principal processes that drive pollution distribution. However, the spa
tial assessment and quantification of multiple pollution sources cannot be
resolved. This aspect is explored in detail in the second paper of the seri
es, focusing on the exploitation of principal component and factor analysis
results as inputs for canonical correlation, geostatistical analysis and g
eographic information systems tools.