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ORIGINAL RESEARCH
Analysis of Heavy Metal Content Characteristics
in Topsoil of Wasteland in the Industrial and
Mining Areas of Shenmu, Shaanxi Province, China
1
Shaanxi Provincial Land Engineering Construction Group Co., Ltd., Xi’an Jiaotong University, Technology Innovation
Center for Land Engineering and Human Settlements, Xi’an 712000, China
2
Key Laboratory of Degraded and Unused Land Consolidation Engineering, the Ministry of Natural Resources,
Xi’an 710075, China
3
Institute of Land Engineering and Technology, Shaanxi Provincial Land Engineering Construction Group Co., Ltd.,
Xi’an 710075, China
4
Shaanxi Provincial Land Consolidation Engineering Technology Research Center, Xi’an 710075, China
Submission date: 2023-09-25
Final revision date: 2024-01-29
Acceptance date: 2024-02-25
Online publication date: 2024-08-05
Publication date: 2025-01-02
Corresponding author
Sun Yingying
Shaanxi Provincial Land Engineering Construction Group Co., Ltd., Xi’an Jiaotong University, Technology Innovation Center for Land Engineering and Human Settlements, Xi'an, China
Shaanxi Provincial Land Engineering Construction Group Co., Ltd., Xi’an Jiaotong University, Technology Innovation Center for Land Engineering and Human Settlements, Xi'an, China
Pol. J. Environ. Stud. 2025;34(1):263-273
KEYWORDS
land reclamationindustrial and mining wastelandsoil qualityassessment of heavy metal contaminationcorrelation analysis
TOPICS
ABSTRACT
To assess the environmental quality of the topsoil (0-20 cm) in an industrial and mining wasteland
lacated in a town in northern Shaanxi Province, Shenmu City, over 60 soil samples were collected and
analyzed for the presence of heavy metals, including chromium (Cr), nickel (Ni), copper (Cu), zinc (Zn),
arsenic (As), cadmium (Cd), and lead (Pb). The degree of heavy metal contamination in the land was
assessed using the Land Accumulative Index (LAI) and the Potential Ecological Hazard Index (PERI)
methods. The correlation between the heavy metals was also analyzed. The study revealed that the mean
levels of Cr, Ni, Cu, Zn, As, Cd, and Pb in the topsoil (0-20 cm) of industrial and mining waste areas were
42.6, 19.7, 19.7, 47.7, 8.6, 0.10, and 21.3 mg/kg, respectively. These levels were found to be lower than
the screening values for soil pollution risk on agricultural land. The topsoil in the study area exhibited no
enrichment in Cr, Ni, Cu, Zn, and As, with pollution levels limited to mild for these elements. However, Pb
exhibited mild pollution levels. Cd posed the risk of potential ecological hazards ranging from mild to very
strong in some sample sites, yet the combined potential ecological risks were deemed small. Additionally,
there were highly significant positive correlations (p<0.01) between the levels of Cr and Ni and Cu and Zn,
while As exhibited significant homology.
CONFLICT OF INTEREST
The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.
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