A method of urban ecological risk assessment: combining the multimedia fugacity model and GIS

Abstract

Industrial pollution has caused serious human health risk because the pollutants can be accumulated in human body via multi routes in a long term, especially in areas of rapid industrialization. It is of great importance to obtain the pollutants’ information, including the transport routes and spatial distribution in the various environmental media of different sub-regions, to facilitate more accurate risk assessment and more effective risk management in urban ecosystems. In this article, we proposed a research framework of urban ecological risk assessment method, which combines the multimedia fugacity model, the multi-route exposure model, exposure-risk relationships and geographic information system (GIS). An urban ecological risk assessment of a hypothetical region indicates that it is possible and feasible to introduce GIS into the previous method to satisfy the requirements of risk management. The assessment results can be further utilized for industrial pollution emission control.