Metal Concentrations in Water and Sediment of the Salt River Catchment

Zikhona Menze's dataset measures the spatial and temporal distribution of ten metals (Al, Cd, Co, Cr, Cu, Fe, Mn, Ni, Pb, Zn) in the Liesbeek, Black, and Salt Rivers in Cape Town. It compares data from 2022 with unpublished 2006 data across wet and dry seasons at five sampling stations. The study assesses contamination levels, identifies pollution sources, and evaluates trends over a sixteen-year period in this heavily urbanized catchment.

Use Cases

• Assessing contamination levels of heavy metals in urban river water and sediment.
• Identifying potential pollution sources by analyzing spatial concentration patterns across sampling stations.
• Evaluating temporal trends in metal pollution by comparing data from 2006 and 2022.
• Analyzing the influence of seasonal variation (wet vs. dry) on metal concentrations.
• Correlating metal concentrations with physicochemical parameters and sediment grain size.

Strengths

• Provides temporal comparison over a sixteen-year period (2006 and 2022).
• Includes data for ten specific metals and physicochemical parameters.
• Samples were collected across five stations in three rivers, covering both wet and dry seasons.

Limitations

• Column names and exact row count are not provided in the metadata.
• The dataset's spatial scale is limited to five specific sampling stations within a single catchment.
• The 'Last updated' date (2026-03-24) is in the future relative to the data collection (2022), indicating a potential metadata conflict.

Provenance

Source

Zikhona Menze

Collection Method

Field sampling of water and sediment, with laboratory analysis using ICP-MS and grain size analysis.

Time Range

2006 to 2022

Freshness

2026-03-24

Geography

Liesbeek River, Black River, and Salt River catchment, Cape Town, South Africa.