title: Assessment of lead pollution in topsoils of a southern Italy area: Analysis of urban and peri-urban environment.
abstract: Exposure to lead (Pb) may affect adversely human health. Mapping soil Pb contents is essential to obtain a quantitative estimate of potential risk of Pb contamination. The main aim of this paper was to determine the soil Pb concentrations in the urban and peri-urban area of Cosenza-Rende to map their spatial distribution and assess the probability that soil Pb concentration exceeds a critical threshold that might cause concern for human health. Samples were collected at 149 locations from residual and non-residual topsoil in gardens, parks, flower-beds, and agricultural fields. Fine earth fraction of soil samples was analyzed by X-ray Fluorescence spectrometry. Stochastic images generated by the sequential Gaussian simulation were jointly combined to calculate the probability of exceeding the critical threshold that could be used to delineate the potentially risky areas. Results showed areas in which Pb concentration values were higher to the Italian regulatory values. These polluted areas were quite large and likely, they could create a significant health risk for human beings and vegetation in the near future. The results demonstrated that the proposed approach can be used to study soil contamination to produce geochemical maps, and identify hot-spot areas for soil Pb concentration.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biology, Ecology and Earth Sciences, University of Calabria, Ponte Bucci, 87036 Rende, CS, Italy. Electronic address: ilaria.guagliardi@unical.it.
authors.forename: Ilaria
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Guagliardi
authors.affiliation: Department of Science and Technology, University of Sannio, 82100 Benevento, Italy.
authors.forename: Domenico
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Cicchella
authors.affiliation: Department of Biology, Ecology and Earth Sciences, University of Calabria, Ponte Bucci, 87036 Rende, CS, Italy.
authors.forename: Rosanna
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: De Rosa
authors.affiliation: National Research Council of Italy, Institute for Agricultural and Forest Systems in the Mediterranean (ISAFOM), Via Cavour 4/6, 87036 Rende, CS, Italy.
authors.forename: Gabriele
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Buttafuoco
mesh_terms: D002947:Cities; D004784:Environmental Monitoring / Q000379:methods; D007558:Italy; D007854:Lead / Q000737:chemistry*; D012987:Soil / Q000737:chemistry; D012989:Soil Pollutants / Q000737:chemistry*
chemical_list: D012987:Soil; D012989:Soil Pollutants; D007854:Lead
keywords: Geochemistry; Lead; Soil pollution; Stochastic simulation; Urban and peri-urban soils