Dataset description

This dataset has now been superseded, please see the Estimated Ambient Background Soil Chemistry England and Wales dataset. This dataset indicates the estimated topsoil Arsenic(As), Cadmium (Cd), Cr (Chromium), Nickel (Ni) and Lead (Pb) concentrations (mg kg-1) derived by spatial interpolation of the point source urban soil PHE (potentially harmful elements) data. Urban soil geochemical data generally have large positive skewness coefficients so were transformed by taking natural logarithms. To overcome the bias associated with traditional measures of location (mean) and scale (standard deviation) for log-normal data, the inverse distance weighted (IDW) mean and standard deviation of log transformed element concentrations were used for mapping the spatial variation in As, Cd, Cr, Ni and Pb concentrations. The soil chemistry data is based on GBASE (Geochemical Baseline Survey of the Environment) soil geochemical data where these are available. Elsewhere the stream sediment data are converted to surface soil equivalent potentially harmful element(PHE) concentrations. This dataset covers England and Wales but data is available for the whole of Great Britain, with the exception of the London area where an inadequate number of geochemical samples are available at the moment.

Constraints

This dataset has been superseded by Estimated Ambient Background Soil Chemistry England and Wales. Please note for BGS internal use: Wolfson stream sediment data is used for southern England where GBASE data isn't available, please check with BGS IPR before using this dataset.

Further information

For more information please contact:

Enquiries
British Geological Survey
Environmental Science Centre, Nicker Hill, Keyworth
Nottingham
NG12 5GG

Tel : +44 (0)115 936 3143
Fax :+44 (0)115 936 3276
Email :enquiries@bgs.ac.uk

Associated dataset(s)

Estimated Ambient Background Soil Chemistry England and Wales

Estimated Ambient Background Soil Chemistry Scotland

Estimated Urban Soil Chemistry

Estimated Urban Soil Chemistry Great Britain (version 1)

Measured Urban Soil Chemistry

Point Source Urban Soil Chemistry Great Britain (version 1)

Soil Chemistry Scotland (version 3)

Urban Soil Chemistry

Further details

Dataset details

Language	English
Curator	British Geological Survey
Supply media/format	Shapefiles Not applicable
Storage format	Digital:ESRI Files
Frequency of update	not planned
Start of capture	Before 2009
End of capture	Not known
Contact details
Department	Enquiries
Organisation	British Geological Survey
Address	Environmental Science Centre, Nicker Hill, Keyworth
City	Nottingham
County	Nottinghamshire
Country	United Kingdom
Postcode	NG12 5GG
E-mail	enquiries@bgs.ac.uk
Telephone	+44 (0)115 936 3143
Fax	+44 (0)115 936 3276
Keywords
Topic category	geoscientificInformation (information pertaining to earth sciences)
Keywords and Keyphrases	ARSENIC CADMIUM CHROMIUM LEAD NICKEL SOIL CHEMISTRY
Keyword source	BGS Keyphrases
Spatial details
Spatial Reference System	OSGB 1936 / British National Grid [27700]
Dataset extent
Coverage (Lat/Long)	North boundary : 55.83 East boundary  : 2 South boundary : 49.77 West boundary  : -6.33
Metadata
Metadata language	English
Metadata last updated	10th January 2013
Metadata standard	ISO standard 19115:2003
Copyright and IPR
The copyright of materials derived from the British Geological Survey's work is vested in the Natural Environment Research Council [NERC]. No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, or stored in a retrieval system of any nature, without the prior permission of the copyright holder, via the BGS Intellectual Property Rights Manager. Use by customers of information provided by the BGS, is at the customer's own risk. In view of the disparate sources of information at BGS's disposal, including such material donated to BGS, that BGS accepts in good faith as being accurate, the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) gives no warranty, expressed or implied, as to the quality or accuracy of the information supplied, or to the information's suitability for any use. NERC/BGS accepts no liability whatever in respect of loss, damage, injury or other occurence however caused.

W -6.33	55.83 N
S 49.77	2 E