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Study of a comprehensive assessment method of the environmental quality of soil in industrial and mining gathering areas

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Abstract

Industrial and mining activities have been recognized as major sources of heavy metal contamination in soil. Here, we developed a comprehensive assessment method for the soil environment in industrial and mining gathering areas based on the pressure–state–response model. Using this method, we assessed the environmental quality of soil in a typical industrial and mining gathering area in Tianjin City, China. The results are as follows: (1) The comprehensive environmental quality index of the soil in the study area was 0.532, which corresponds to an alert state and shows that the soil environment is generally poor. (2) The pressure, state, and response indexes were 0.609, 0.634, and 0.163, respectively, which suggests that the pressure in the soil environment of the study area is barely acceptable, and the state is merely passable. Furthermore, the response measures are not ideal. (3) The low response index scores indicate poor production processes, low pollutant treatment level, and unsatisfactory level of management by the enterprises in the study area. (4) The distribution of soil risks was found to be inseparably related to that of contamination sources and land use types. Furthermore, the distribution was uneven to a certain degree. Finally, we propose recommendations for the optimization, adjustment, and management of typical industrial and mining gathering areas with petrochemical, metallurgy, and other heavily polluting enterprises.

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Acknowledgments

The study was supported by “Funding Project of Environmental Nonprofit Industry Research and Special of China” (No. 201309032) and “National Natural Science Foundation of China” (No. 41301579). The authors are grateful to the editors and the anonymous reviewers for their insightful comments and suggestions.

Conflict of interest

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. College of Environmental Science and Engineering, Nankai University, 94 Weijin Road, Nankai District, Tianjin, 300071, China

    Yang Guan, Chaofeng Shao & Meiting Ju

  2. Chinese Research Academy of Environmental Sciences, Beijing, 100012, China

    Qingbao Gu

  3. Research Institute of Forestry, Chinese Academy of Forestry, Beijing, 100091, China

    Xueju Huang

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  1. Yang Guan
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  2. Chaofeng Shao
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  3. Qingbao Gu
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  4. Meiting Ju
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Correspondence to Chaofeng Shao.

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Guan, Y., Shao, C., Gu, Q. et al. Study of a comprehensive assessment method of the environmental quality of soil in industrial and mining gathering areas. Stoch Environ Res Risk Assess 30, 91–102 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00477-015-1036-2

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