Estimated Urban Soil Chemistry Concentrations Across Great Britain

The British Geological Survey provides estimated geometric mean concentrations of five potentially harmful elements—Arsenic, Cadmium, Chromium, Nickel, and Lead—in urban topsoil. This spatially interpolated dataset supports initial risk assessments for human health and ecological studies. The data is derived from the BGS Geochemical Baseline Survey of the Environment project.

Use Cases

• Spatially interpolate estimated concentrations of Arsenic, Cadmium, Chromium, Nickel, and Lead to map urban soil contamination across Great Britain.
• Compare estimated topsoil concentrations of Potentially Harmful Elements against Soil Guideline Values for preliminary regulatory risk screening.
• Analyze correlations between high estimated PHE concentrations and current or historic land use data to attribute sources as geogenic or anthropogenic.
• Use the estimated geometric mean concentrations to model baseline ecological risks in urban environments.

Strengths

• Data covers five key Potentially Harmful Elements (Arsenic, Cadmium, Chromium, Nickel, Lead) critical for environmental assessment.
• Derived from the authoritative BGS Geochemical Baseline Survey of the Environment project.
• Provides spatially interpolated estimates for urban areas across Great Britain, enabling regional analysis.

Limitations

• Estimated concentrations are derived via interpolation; actual site measurements may vary significantly over short distances.
• Dataset interpretation is limited to the records in BGS possession at creation time, potentially omitting newer sites.
• High estimated concentrations do not confirm a site-specific health risk, requiring further ground investigation.

Provenance

Source

British Geological Survey (BGS)

Collection Method

Spatial interpolation of point source urban soil chemistry data from the G-BASE project.

Time Range

null

Freshness

null

Geography

Urban areas of Great Britain