Urban Soil Chemistry dataset
| Scale | N/A |
|---|---|
| Coverage | 24 urban centres in England, Scotland and Wales |
| Format | GIS point and polygon data in ESRI and MapInfo formats; others available on request. |
| Price | Available on request. Subject to licence fee and data preparation fee. More information about licensing data |
| Downloads |
Potentially harmful chemical elements (PHEs), including arsenic (As), cadmium (Cd), chromium (Cr), nickel (Ni) and lead (Pb), occur in the environment and under certain circumstances can be harmful to plants, animals or people.
Whether or not a particular PHE constitutes a hazard depends on a variety of factors including its chemical form, concentration, behaviour and the extent to which it may be taken up by living organisms; the size of the mineral particles in which the element occurs; soil or water acidity (pH); the type of vegetation cover; the extent of exposure to the element; and the dose received.
A significant proportion of the urban landscape in Great Britain has naturally elevated surface soil concentrations of some PHEs that exceed the soil guideline value (SGV) and/or the proposed soil screening value (SSV) for assessing ecological risks.
The point data comprises the locations and concentrations (mg kg-1) of As, Cd, Cr, Ni and Pb in urban surface soil samples, collected from soil geochemical surveys.
The polygon data indicates the estimated geometric mean concentrations (mg kg-1) of As, Cd, Cr, Ni and Pb in surface soil derived by spatial interpolation of the point data.
