Pedosphere 18(3): 344--352, 2008
ISSN 1002-0160/CN 32-1315/P
©2008 Soil Science Society of China
Published by Elsevier B.V. and Science Press
A comparative analysis of environmental quality assessment methods for heavy metal-contaminated soils
LI Wei-Xin1,2, ZHANG Xu-Xiang1, WU Bing1, SUN Shi-Lei1, CHEN Yan-Song3, PAN Wen-Yang1, ZHAO Da-Yon1g1 and CHENG Shu-Pei1
1 State Key Laboratory of Soil and Sustainable Agriculture, Institute of Soil Science, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Nanjing 210008 (China). E-mail: gangday@sohu.com
2 Graduate School of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049 (China)
3 College of Resource and Environmental Sciences, Sichuan Agricultural University, Ya'an 625014 (China)
ABSTRACT
      Four assessment methods (two pollution indexes and two fuzzy mathematical models) were employed to investigate the environmental quality of four soils around a ferroalloy plant in Nanjing City. Environmental quality was assessed as class Ⅳ (moderately polluted) for each soil with single-factor index method, and was identified to be classes Ⅳ, Ⅲ (slightly polluted), Ⅲ, and Ⅲ for soils A, B, C, and D, respectively, with the comprehensive index model. In comparison with the single-factor index method, the comprehensive index model concerned both dominant parameter and average contribution of all factors to the integrated environmental quality. Using the two fuzzy mathematical methods (single-factor deciding and weighted average models), the environmental risks were determined to be classes Ⅳ, Ⅲ, Ⅱ (clean), and Ⅱ for soils A, B, C, and D, respectively. However, divergence of the membership degree to each pollution class still occurred between the two methods. In fuzzy mathematical methods, membership functions were used to describe the limits between different pollution degrees, and different weights were allocated for the factors according to pollution contribution. Introduction of membership degree and weight of each factor to fuzzy mathematical models made the methods more reasonable in the field of environmental risk assessment.
Key Words:  environmental assessment, fuzzy mathematical model, heavy metal pollution, pollution index method, soil
Citation: Li, W. X., Zhang, X. X., Wu, B., Sun, S. L., Chen, Y. S., Pan, W. Y., Zhao, D. Y. and Cheng, S. P. 2008. A comparative analysis of environmental quality assessment methods for heavy metal-contaminated soils. Pedosphere. 18(3): 344-352.
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