Comparison of Soil Heavy Metals Pollution Assess Methods

The assessment of contamination levels of heavy metals in arable land soil is significant to the yields and qualities of crops. The assess methods of Index of Geoaccumulation (I_geo) and Set Pair Analysis (SPA) are applied to assess the farmland soil heavy metals, which are As, Hg, Cr, Cd and Pb, pollution levels. The results indicate although the concentrations of Cd in different soil samples is relative lower, the pollution levels of Cd in soils are highest among the five heavy metals. The assess results obtained by the I_geo and SPA were similar with each other, and the SPA is a comprehensive assess method. However, the I_geo concerned the single pollution levels of each trace element in soil.