Application of Pollution Indices for the Assessment of Heavy Metal Pollution in Flood Impacted Soil

Abstract

The flood in 2012, which was recorded as the most devastating in the past 40 years in Nigeria, that caused colossal loss in material wealth, could also be a source of heavy metal pollution, especially at the lower reaches of the flood where deposition of flood transported materials occurs. Heavy metals (Fe, Ni, Cd, Cr, Zn, Cu and Pb) concentrations were determined in soil samples from two locations, an area submerged by the flood water (flooded) and an area at a higher elevation than the flood water (unflooded), which served as the control. The soil pH, texture, Total Organic Carbon, and Cation Exchange Capacity were also determined. Standard laboratory methods were employed for all the analyses. The soil in this study was characterized as sandy/clay/loam soil following the particle size analysis, with an average pH of 4.6 in the flooded soils and 6.5 in the unflooded soils. Total Organic Carbon (TOC) ranged from (0.936-1.989)% in the flooded soil and (0.663-0.939)% in the unflooded soil. Cation Exchange Capacity (CEC) was higher in the flooded soil (1.936-3.234) meq/100 g, than in the unflooded soil (1.164-1.722) meq/100 g. The results of

Potential Ecological Risk and Human Health Risk Assessment of Heavy Metal Pollution in Industrial Affected Soils by Coal Mining and Metallurgy in Ostrava, Czech Republic

“…The toxic response factor Tri is defined as 40, 30, 10, 5, 5, 5, 2, 2, 1, 1 and 1 for Hg, Cd, As, Cu, Pb Ni, Cr, V, Zn, Mn and Ti. [27,34,35,36,37,38,39,40,41,42].…”

Pollution indices as useful tools for the comprehensive evaluation of the degree of soil contamination–A review

“…PI avg was first used by Gong et al (2008) and Inengite et al (2015) in order to estimate soil quality. It can be defined as follows:where n —the number of studied heavy metals and PI—calculated values for the Single Pollution Index.…”

The contents of the potentially harmful elements in the arable soils of southern Poland, with the assessment of ecological and health risks: a case study

“…They were based on the threshold effect concentrations, below which harmful effects were unlikely to be observed (TECs) and on probable effects of the concentrations (PECs), above which harmful effects were likely to be observed (MacDonald et al 2000). Thus, in the second step of determining soil quality, some sediment quality indices were also used for soils (Qui 2010;Inengite et al 2015;Weissmanová and Pavlovský 2017). The following single ecological risk indices were selected for the investigations: potential ecological risk coefficient (Er), hazard quotient (HQ), and modified hazard quotient (mHQ); the complex ecological risk indices were the following: potential ecological risk index (RI), hazard index (HI), mean probable effects level quotient (mPELq), mean effect range median quotient (mERMq), ecological contamination index (ECI), and contamination severity index (CSI).…”