Assessment of Metals Concentrations in Soils of Abu Dhabi Emirate Using Pollution Indices and Multivariate Statistics

Abstract

The aim of this study was twofold. Firstly, we performed a land capability class determination of the agricultural soils from the Abu Dhabi Emirate, the United Arab Emirates, based on the concentrations of 17 chemical elements determined in the soil samples collected from 84 locations. Secondly, we assess the soil pollution with different metals, using several pollution indices. The results of Principal Component Analysis (PCA) shows that four principal components (PCs) are responsible for describing the total metals concentrations’ variance, the highest contribution on PC1 being that of Mn, and Cr, on PC2 that of Fe, on PC3 that of Cu, and on PC4 that of Al. After determining the optimal number of clusters, we classified the sites into three clusters, while the studied metals were grouped function on their concentrations. Then, we used five indices to assess the pollution level of the soil at the study sites and in the clusters. The geo—accumulation index (Igeo) indicates uncontamination/moderately contamination with Cu in cluster 1, uncontaminated/moderately contaminate soils with Cd, Cu, and Ni in cluster 2, and uncontaminated/moderately contaminated soil with Cu and moderately contaminated with Pb, Zn, and Ni in cluster 3. By comparison, the enrichment factors overestimate the pollution of the studied sites. The pollution load index (PLI) indicates a baseline level of pollution at 14 sites and the deterioration of the soil quality at four sites. The Nemerow pollution index provides similar results as PLI.

Study of Atmospheric Pollution and Health Risk Assessment: A Case Study for the Sharjah and Ajman Emirates (UAE)

“…Atmosphere 2021, 12, 1442 2 of 17 A significant ecological and public health concern is associated with the environmental contamination and heavy metals' ultimate toxic effect [8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15]. Although many heavy metals are essential micronutrients necessary for various biochemical and physiological processes and functions [8], excessive exposure to these agents results in a wide range of adverse health effects and diseases [16].…”

Estimating the Precipitation Amount at Regional Scale Using a New Tool, Climate Analyzer

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Assessing the vulnerability of buildings to floods in the lower sector of Slănic River. Case Study of Cernăteşti village, Buzău County, Romania

“…In upper areas, the slope is steeper, the shape of the subbasins is circular and precipitations are higher [14]. These properties can favor the appearance of flash floods [6] that can lead further to the appearance of floods downstream IOP Publishing doi:10.1088/1757-899X/1242/1/012011 3 [15,16], and subsequently to pollution with carried materials [17,18], especially in an area like Cernăteşti, where the distance between the hills bordering the valley is under 1 km.…”