HeavymetalContaminations of Urban soils inOstrava, Czech Republic: Assessment ofMetal Pollution and using PrincipalComponentAnalysis

Abstract

This study investigates the status of heavy metals contaminations in urban soils of Ostrava in<br />the Czech Republic. The main aim of this study was determination of concentration of Cd, Pb, Zn, Cu, Mn,<br />V and Hg, assessment of contamination levels of metals in urban soils and verification of potential source of<br />metals contamination. Soil samples were collected from soil layer of 20 cm and metals were determined by<br />atomic spectroscopy methods (F AAS, GF AAS, AMA 254). It was concluded that metals concentrations in<br />studied soils increased in the following order:Hg < Cd < Cu < Pb < V < Zn <Mn, with mean values of Hg (0.17<br />mg/kg), Cd (0.20 mg/kg), Pb (66.93 mg/kg), Zn (209.51 mg/kg), Cu (38.49 mg/kg), V (105.18 mg/kg) and Mn<br />(1349.85 mg/kg). The results obtained fromassessment ofmetals pollution bymeans of index of geoaccumulation<br />(Igeo), enrichment factor (EF), contamination factor (CF), pollution load index (PLI), pollution index (PI) and<br />integrated pollution index (IPI) confirmed that urban soils were contaminated in the range from moderately<br />through strongly polluted up to highly contaminated soils. Multivariate statistics approach (Principal<br />Component Analysis) was adopted for the data treatment for identification of contamination sources. This<br />study verified that soil contamination was the result of the industrial processing that occurred in the studied<br />area. All of these data confirmed that Cd, Pb, Zn, Cu, Mn, V and Hg come from anthropogenic activities,<br />especially from industrial processes.