Abstract
The purpose of this study is to investigate the current status of heavy metal pollution in surface soils from Hankou Region, the old industrial district in the city of Wuhan, China. The contents of eight heavy metals As, Cd, Cr, Cu, Hg, Ni, Pb and Zn were tested for each 132 soil samples. The results show that the average value of Cd and Zn in soils of Hankou Region were up to 0.548 and 220.7 ug/g, respectively, which were much higher than their natural background values. Their spatial patterns were analyzed by the geographical information system (GIS) technology. The spatial patterns of these elements revealed that Cd, Zn and Cu might originate from the familiar traffic and industrial, and the elements of As, Cr and Ni could originate from the natural sources. The values of pollution index (PI) indicated that metal pollution level was Cd > Zn > Cu > Hg > Pb > Ni > Cr > As. Potential ecological risk indexes (RI) further indicated that Wuhan was suffering from serious metal contamination.
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