Measured Urban Soil Chemistry data provides locations and concentrations of Arsenic, Cadmium, Chromium, Nickel, and Lead in urban topsoil. Derived from the British Geological Survey's high-resolution G-BASE project, this information supports initial human health and ecological risk assessments for land use planning.
Use Cases
- Map concentrations of Arsenic, Cadmium, and Lead to identify urban areas exceeding Soil Guideline Values for regulatory review.
- Analyze spatial correlations between high Chromium or Nickel levels and historical land use data to distinguish geogenic from anthropogenic sources.
- Use point source Potentially Harmful Element data to prioritize locations where developers must conduct detailed risk assessments.
Strengths
- Data derived from the national, high-resolution BGS Geochemical Baseline Survey of the Environment (G-BASE) project.
- Provides measured concentrations for five specific heavy metals: Arsenic, Cadmium, Chromium, Nickel, and Lead.
- Information is spatially referenced, enabling geographic analysis and comparison with land use data.
Limitations
- Point source data is based on an interpretation of records in BGS possession at the time of creation, which may be incomplete.
- Sample size, spatial density, and temporal coverage are unspecified, limiting reproducibility of analysis.
- Concentrations above guideline values do not necessarily imply a significant health risk, requiring expert interpretation.
Provenance
- Source
- British Geological Survey (BGS)
- Collection Method
- Derived from the national, high resolution urban soil geochemical data from the BGS Geochemical Baseline Survey of the Environment (G-BASE) project.
- Time Range
- null
- Freshness
- null
- Geography
- Urban areas of the United Kingdom (implied by BGS national project and UK data platform).