From risk assessment to land planning. The case of a trace element‐contaminated area in Chile

Abstract

While abundant scientific literature focuses on diagnosing contaminated areas, solutions with a scientific base are far from balanced. This is the case of the Quintero‐Puchuncaví Bay, a widely known contaminated area in the central coast of Chile. Here, arsenic in soils surrounding the industrial complex has been reported as a threat to human health. However, land planning based on As contamination becomes a challenge since the whole area is identified as contaminated. Such a lack of land‐planning constrains the occupation and remediation of contaminated soil leading to a brownfield‐like landscape. To face this challenge, we proposed using a geospatial decision support system (S‐DSS) to integrate the contamination assessment, health and ecosystem risks, and potential land uses. When characterizing soil arsenic concentration thresholds for different land uses in a S‐DSS, we could categorize the land in suitable, caution, and unsuitable areas (based on human health risks). This way, we unravel areas with potential use in the current condition while also discerning caution and unsuitable categories, that can undergo extensive and intensive remediation techniques. Similarly, we took a conservational approach to estimate emerging risk from the industrial complex associated to explosions. Altogether, it highlights the potential of S‐DSS to integrate different geographic information. We finally feature two APPs regarding current land‐use suitability and a modeled one considering future arsenic emissions.