Variations of Soil Lead in Different Land Uses Along the Urbanization Gradient in the Beijing Metropolitan Area

Abstract

Understanding the spatial pattern of soil lead (Pb) levels is essential to protecting human health. Most previous studies have examined soil Pb distributions by either urbanization gradient or land-use type. Few studies, however, have examined both factors together. It remains unclear whether the impacts of land use on soil Pb levels are consistent along the urbanization gradient. To fill this gap, we investigated variations in soil Pb level under different land-use types along the urbanization gradient in Beijing, China. We classified the degree of urbanization as the urban core, transitional zone, or suburban area and the land-use type as industrial area, roadside, residential area, institutional area, road greenbelt, park, or forest. Our results showed that the range of soil Pb levels in Beijing is <1 mg/kg–292 mg/kg, with a mean of 22 mg/kg. Along the urbanization gradient, the mean soil Pb level increased from the suburban area to the urban core. Land-use types have an impact on soil Pb levels, however, when the degree of urbanization is considered, the impact from land use on soil Pb level was only significant in the transitional zone. Parks and road greenbelts were found to have lower soil Pb, primarily due to soil restoration. Roadside and residential areas were found to have higher soil Pb because of traffic emissions, leaded paint, and previous industrial contamination. In the urban core and suburban area, the soil Pb level showed no significant differences among various land-use types. Given the results of soil Pb in various land-use types, we suggest that future studies consider the urbanization gradient in which different land-use samples are located.

Assessment of Lead Contamination in Soils of Urban Parks of Khorramabad, Iran

“…Mao et al (11) found lower levels of Pb in parks and road greenbelts in comparison to other sampled areas, which can be related to soil restoration (11). Although Khorramabad is one of the oldest and largest cities of Lorestan province, but had low concentrations of lead, which is probably due to their geology and/or lack of industrial ac- tivities in the study area.…”

“…It can greatly affect the function of certain body systems and poisoning by lead primarily affects the hematopoietic, central nervous, hepatic and renal system leading to serious disorders. Several studies on lead contamination in urban soils have been conducted in several cities (5,(8)(9)(10)(11)(12)(13)(14). Hence, it is important to apprehend the spatial distribution and concentration of lead in urban soils.…”

An assessment of the Causes of Lead Pollution and the Efficiency of Bioremediation by Plants and Microorganisms

“…Soil pollution from lead was not observed in the major cities in China, such as Beijing and Hong Kong; therefore, the BLLs of inhabitants in these cities were normal (4-5 μg/dL) [20][21][22]. The number of mining and metallurgy factories is rapidly increasing in China due to the increased consumption of lead-acid batteries.…”

Multi-scale assessment of metal contamination in residential soil and soil fauna: A case study in the Baltimore–Washington metropolitan region, USA

“…Urban landscapes are conspicuously contaminated by trace metals and thus pose a potential health risk to people and wildlife 2002; Zhang, 2006;Werkenthin, Kluge, & Wessolek 2014), interior and exterior paint (Trippler, Schmitt, & Lund 1988), stack emissions (Govil, Reddy, & Krishna 2001;Walsh, Chillrud, Simpson, & Bopp, 2001;Kaminski & Landsberger, 2000), management inputs (Russell-Anelli, Bryant, & Galbraith 1999), distance from roads (Wang, Ren, Liu, Yu, & Zhang, 2006;Yesilonis, Pouyat, & Neerchal 2008;Schwarz et al, 2012), land use (Xia, Chen, Liu, & Liu 2011;Mao, Huang, Ma, & Sun 2014), and age of structures (Schwarz et al, 2012;Stewart, Farver, Gorsevski, & Miner 2014). The spatial pattern resulting from these factors is dependent on characteristics of the source such as whether the metal was emitted from a point or non-point source, the height of emission, and the particle size fraction of the pollutant (Cook & Ni, 2007).…”