Urban Soil Heavy Metal Concentrations in Lafayette, Louisiana (N=1,290)

Lafayette, Louisiana, is the focus of this dataset of 1,290 composite topsoil samples. It provides summary statistics for concentrations of heavy metals and metalloids, measured in mg/kg. The data was authored by Holly L. Heafner and last updated on March 18, 2026.

Use Cases

• Calculate pollution indices based on heavy metal concentrations.
• Assess soil contamination profiles for specific management actions.
• Analyze correlations between soil properties and metal concentrations.
• Screen soil samples against regulatory or background concentration values.

Strengths

• Dataset contains 1,290 composite topsoil samples, providing a substantial sample size.
• Data includes summary statistics for multiple heavy metal(loid)s, likely enabling comparative analysis.
• The dataset is small (5.5 KB), making it quick to download and inspect.

Limitations

• Row count and column-level documentation are absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Description metadata is limited; actual data quality requires manual inspection after download.

Provenance

Source

Holly L. Heafner via figshare

Collection Method

Likely collected from composite topsoil samples in urban Lafayette, LA.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-03-18 17:37:30; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Lafayette, Louisiana, USA