Impacts of traffic and rainfall characteristics on heavy metals build-up and wash-off from urban roads.
An investigation into the effects of changes in urban traffic characteristics due to rapid urbanisation and the predicted changes in rainfall characteristics due to climate change on the build-up and wash-off of heavy metals was carried out in Gold Coast, Australia. The study sites encompassed three different urban land uses. Nine heavy metals commonly associated with traffic emissions were selected. The results were interpreted using multivariate data analysis and decision making tools, such as principal component analysis (PCA), fuzzy clustering (FC), PROMETHEE, and GAIA. Initial analyses established high, low, and moderate traffic scenarios as well as low, low to moderate, moderate, high, and extreme rainfall scenarios for build-up and wash-off investigations. GAIA analyses established that moderate to high traffic scenarios could affect the build-up, while moderate to high rainfall scenarios could affect the wash-off of heavy metals under changed conditions. However, in wash-off, metal concentrations in 1-75 μm fraction were found to be independent of the changes to rainfall characteristics. In build-up, high traffic activities in commercial and industrial areas influenced the accumulation of heavy metal concentrations in particulate size range from 75 - >300 μm, whereas metal concentrations in finer size range of <1-75 μm were not affected. As practical implications, solids <1 μm and organic matter from 1 - >300 μm can be targeted for removal of Ni, Cu, Pb, Cd, Cr, and Zn from build-up, while organic matter from <1 - >300 μm can be targeted for removal of Cd, Cr, Pb, and Ni from wash-off. Cu and Zn need to be removed as free ions from most fractions in wash-off.
School of Urban Development and Chemistry Discipline, Queensland University of Technology, GPO Box 2434, Brisbane 4001, Queensland, Australia. s.mahbub@qut.edu.au
Parvez
P
Mahbub
Godwin A
GA
Ayoko
Ashantha
A
Goonetilleke
Prasanna
P
Egodawatta
Serge
S
Kokot
D057231:Climate Change; D004784:Environmental Monitoring; D004785:Environmental Pollutants / Q000032:analysis*; D004787:Environmental Pollution / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D019216:Metals, Heavy / Q000032:analysis*; D011793:Queensland; D011891:Rain; D014186:Transportation / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D014507:Urbanization
D004785:Environmental Pollutants; D019216:Metals, Heavy