Potentially Toxic Elements in Urban and Peri-Urban Soils – A Critical Meta-Analysis of their Sources, Availability, Interactions, and Spatial Distribution

Abstract

The current study attempted to incorporate the major aspects of heavy metal pollution in urban and peri-urban soils. Urban soils are a type of currently problematic soil that accumulates a great quantity and diversity of pollutants, a high population load, and a wide range of activities within a very limited area. From 2010 to the present, published studies in the Scopus database on urban soil contamination in various places across the world were studied, evaluated, and discussed. The pollutant levels were statistically processed, and new data were obtained as a consequence of a meta-analysis of the soil contamination and ecological risk indices of the research locations. The soil environment links plants, animals, and humans, as well as living creatures and inanimate substances transported to water and to the air environment. Activities in the soil have as a final destination groundwater, recycling, and reproducing pollutants and chemicals, with heavy metals or potential toxic elements as the major actors. Soil-based urban pollution is of particular concern in soil science as it may be a rising risk for the environment and humanity in the near future.