Spatial distribution of trace metals in urban soils and road dusts : GIS and the identification of contaminated areas, Manchester, UK

Urban soil quality is of concern under current UK contaminated land legislation in terms of potential impacts on human health and the need for sustainable development. Another environmental media that is a likely source of potentially harmful substances (PHS), with possible deleterious health effects in urban populations, is road dust sediment (RDS). Studies of PHS in RDS and soils of urban areas have been published; yet little is known about the spatial, geochemical and mineralogical linkages between these two different media. The aim of this research is to define these linkages and produce novel mineralogical data on the PHSparticulate relationships within these media.