Multimethod Analysis of Heavy Metal Pollution and Source Apportionment in a Southeastern Chinese Region

Abstract

Excessive levels of heavy metals in soil can significantly impact human health and ecological safety. Evaluating heavy metal pollution and identifying its sources are crucial for environmental management. This study investigates the status of heavy metal pollution in a southeastern region of China and aims to identify its sources using data from the first national soil pollution survey, which includes 282 sampling points. Indicators such as the geoaccumulation index (Igeo), the potential ecological risk index (RI), the hazard index (HI), and the total lifetime cancer risk (TLCR) were utilized to assess contamination levels. Geographic information systems (GIS), positive matrix factorization (PMF) receptor modeling, cluster analysis (ClusA) and human health risk assessments were integrated to analyze the sources of heavy metals. The results indicate that agricultural pollution sources have a minor impact on overall heavy metal contamination, with low ecological risk levels in the eastern and western regions. In contrast, the central region exhibited moderate risk, with areas of extremely high risk distributed across the central-west and central-south regions. PMF analysis identified pollution sources including natural origins, coal combustion, industrial emissions, and traffic, with contributions of 17.62%, 18.50%, 28.35%, and 35.56%, respectively. Overall, the carcinogenic risk in the study area is not high. Targeted recommendations were made in response to the pollution situation in the study area. This research enhances our understanding of heavy metal pollution in the soil of the study area and provides a reference for pollution source delineation in other regions.