background and purpose: in the process of rapid urbanization and industrialization in developing countries, environmental pollution is a major concern. one of the fastest growing problems of environmental pollution is an excessive intake of lead in urban soils. lead concentrations in urban soil may result from human activities such as vehicle emissions and industrial activities. this study aime...

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Abstract A field survey was conducted in a contaminated industrial site of southern Beijing, China to investigate the contents and distribution of the organochlorine pesticides (alpha-, beta-, gamma-, delta-HCH, p,p'-DDT, p,p'-DDE, p,p'-DDD and o,p'-DDT) in the profiles of soil, and a health risk assessment was carried out with CalTOX multimedia exposure model. Results showed that mean concentr...

Food safety is a major concern for the Chinese public. This study collected 465 published papers on heavy metal pollution rates (the ratio of the samples exceeding the Grade II limits for Chinese soils, the Soil Environmental Quality Standard-1995) in farmland soil throughout China. The results showed that Cd had the highest pollution rate of 7.75%, followed by Hg, Cu, Ni and Zn, Pb and Cr had ...

Long-term application of fertilizers containing P, especially organic fertilizers, usually increases the water soluble and available P of soil and at the same time may result in P accumulation in soil. Organic fertilizers may also increase movement of P in the soil profile that could result in surface and ground water pollution. An experiment was conducted on field plots that received three app...

Urbanization may cause increased exposure levels to polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) and associated health risks for over half of the world’s population living in cities, but little evidence has shown a direct spatial relationship between urbanization and soil PAH pollution. Based on the monitored PAH concentrations in 188 topsoil (0–5 cm) samples in Shenzhen, the most rapidly developing...

In many parts of the world, urban planning has a renewed focus on addressing the multiple challenges associated with population growth and climate change. Focused on local needs and priorities, these planning processes are raising tensions between more compact and dense urban form to reduce energy use and associated emissions and the provision of urban green infrastructure for ecosystem service...

Urban green spaces provide ecosystem properties fundamental to the provision of ecosystem services, such as the sequestration of carbon and nutrients and serving as a reservoir for organic matter. Although, urban vegetation influences soil physico-chemical properties, it remains unknown whether ecosystem properties depend on plant species portfolios. We tested the influence of three common func...

This article presents a literature review that explores the challenges for planning in urban regions in connection with the preservation of ecosystem services. It further presents some best practice examples for meeting these challenges. The demand for the provision of ecosystem services within urban regions changed during the transition from a largely agrarian society to an industrial society ...

This study deals with the use of satellite TM multi-temporal data coupled with statistical analyses to quantitatively estimate urban expansion and soil consumption for small towns in southern Italy. The investigated area is close to Bari and was selected because highly representative for Italian urban areas. To cope with the fact that small changes have to be captured and extracted from TM mult...