Application of Spatial Extraction Model for Soil Environmental Quality Anomaly Regions

Abstract

An approach for establishment of soil environmental assessment model to evaluate the environmental quality level for soil environmental quality is proposed, in which the GIS and self-organizing map (SOM) techniques are integrated through investigation of soil environmental quality. In this model, self-organizing maps (SOM) and spatial interpolation were applied to cluster a concentration data set of pollutants of soil environmental quality and mapping anomaly region. An application of heavy metal concentrations in soils were surveyed to indicate the status of heavy metal contents and assess environmental quality of soils basing on spatial extraction model. The concentration of 9 metals (Cu, Pb, Zn, Cd, Ni, Cr, Hg, As and Mn) in topsoil were investigated based on samples. The samples were clustered into 3 classes by SOM. According to the concentration level of the samples, the different environmental quality levels were discriminated. The results indicate that SOM as the spatial extraction model was effective to assess the soil environmental quality.