Visualized Quantitative Research of Soil Pollution in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area

Abstract

Soil pollution has become a constraint for the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area to move toward becoming an international first-class bay area. Learning from the three major bay areas of New York, San Francisco, and Tokyo can provide guidance for alleviating the soil environmental pressure in the Greater Bay Area. Based on the relevant literature in the core database of the Web of Science, the current research status of soil pollution in the three major bay areas was analyzed by using co-citation analysis, keywords co-occurrence analysis, and keyword emergence detection. The results showed that the main research topics of soil pollution in the three major bay areas are focused mainly on the source, spatial distribution of and remediation of soil pollutants, bioavailability of soil pollution and its adverse effects on marine organisms, and the role of the marine biotic index in soil pollution assessment. Hotspots in the study of soil pollutants are concentrated in the areas of organic pollution and heavy metal pollution. Toxicity, imposex, and biomarkers are the hot topics in the related marine biological research. By comparing the research status of soil pollution in bay areas at home and abroad, it was found that the study of soil pollution in China's bay areas started relatively late compared with that in the three major bay areas and that the distributions of research area and subject are unbalanced. The intensity of research on the related marine biological research is relatively low. Therefore, carrying out research on the land-sea integration of Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area is an urgent priority. The research field needs to be extended to the related marine biological research. In this way, the study of soil pollution in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area can be improved and the problems of soil pollution can be addressed.