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1 June 2011 Geostatistical Assessment of the Impact of World War I on the Spatial Occurrence of Soil Heavy Metals
Eef Meerschman, Liesbet Cockx, Mohammad Monirul Islam, Fun Meeuws, Marc Van Meirvenne
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Abstract

Previous research showed a regional Cu enrichment of 6 mg kg-1 in the top soil of the Ypres war zone (Belgium), caused by corrosion of WWI shell fragments. Further research was required since in addition to Cu, also As, Pb, and Zn were used during the manufacturing of ammunition. Therefore, an additional data collection was conducted in which the initial Cu data set was tripled to 731 data points and extended to eight heavy metals (As, Cd, Cr, Cu, Hg, Ni, Pb, and Zn) which permitted (1) to evaluate the environmental impact of the heavy metals at a regional scale and (2) to assess their regional spatial occurrence by performing an optimized geostatistical modeling. The results showed no pollution at a regional scale, but sometimes locally concentrations exceeded the soil sanitation threshold, especially for Cu, Pb, and Zn. The spatial patterns of Ni and Cr were related to variations in soil texture whereas the occurrences of Cu and Pb were clearly linked to WWI activities. This difference in spatial behavior was confirmed by an analysis of coregionalization.

© Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences 2010
Eef Meerschman, Liesbet Cockx, Mohammad Monirul Islam, Fun Meeuws, and Marc Van Meirvenne "Geostatistical Assessment of the Impact of World War I on the Spatial Occurrence of Soil Heavy Metals," AMBIO: A Journal of the Human Environment 40(4), 417-424, (1 June 2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13280-010-0104-6
Received: 6 July 2010; Accepted: 13 October 2010; Published: 1 June 2011
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KEYWORDS
geostatistics
Soil heavy metals
spatial variability
World War I
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