Measured Urban Soil Chemistry

The BGS digital Measured Urban Soil Chemistry data comprises the locations and concentrations (mg kg-1) of Arsenic (As), Cadmium (Cd), Chromium (Cr), Nickel (Ni) and Lead (Pb) in urban topsoil samples. The data is derived from the national, high resolution urban soil geochemical data from the BGS Geochemical Baseline Survey of the Environment (G-BASE) project. The information is relevant for the first stage of any assessment of risks to human health required by regulatory authorities in relation to land use and also for assessing ecological risk. Although point source PHE (Potentially Harmful Element) concentrations above respective SGVs (Soil Guideline Value) do not necessarily imply a significant health risk, they do highlight the need to consider whether or not there may be a risk. The urban soil chemistry data can be used to assist Local Planning Authorities to identify those areas where a risk assessment may need to be carried out by developers. Comparison of this spatially referenced geochemical data with information on current or historic land use and geological information might help environmental professionals decide whether high PHE concentrations in topsoils can be attributed to geogenic or anthropogenic sources. The point source data is based on an interpretation of the records in the possession of the BGS at the time the dataset was created.
 
Citation proposal
British Geological Survey. Measured Urban Soil Chemistry. https://metadata.bgs.ac.uk/geonetwork/srv/api/records/cfa3ad2f-f3f7-51cf-e044-0003ba9b0d98
 

Simple

Date ( Creation )
2012
Identifier
http://data.bgs.ac.uk/id/dataHolding/13605690

  Distributor

  +44 115 936 3276 

  Point of contact

  Custodian

Maintenance and update frequency
asNeeded As needed
GEMET - INSPIRE themes
  • Geology
BGS Thesaurus of Geosciences
  • Lead , Chromium , Cadmium , Soil chemistry , Nickel , Arsenic
Keywords
  • NERC_DDC
Access constraints
otherRestrictions Other restrictions
Use constraints
otherRestrictions Other restrictions
Other constraints
The copyright of materials derived from the British Geological Survey's work is vested in the Natural Environment Research Council [NERC]. No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, or stored in a retrieval system of any nature, without the prior permission of the copyright holder, via the BGS Intellectual Property Rights Manager. Use by customers of information provided by the BGS, is at the customer's own risk. In view of the disparate sources of information at BGS's disposal, including such material donated to BGS, that BGS accepts in good faith as being accurate, the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) gives no warranty, expressed or implied, as to the quality or accuracy of the information supplied, or to the information's suitability for any use. NERC/BGS accepts no liability whatever in respect of loss, damage, injury or other occurence however caused.
Other constraints
The dataset is made available to external clients under BGS Digital Data Licence terms and conditions. Revert to the IPR Section (iprdigital@bgs.ac.uk ) if further advice is required with regard to permitted usage.
Spatial representation type
vector Vector
Denominator
50000
Metadata language
English English
Topic category
  • Geoscientific information
Geographic identifier
GBN

 

Date ( Revision )
2009

Geographic identifier
GREAT BRITAIN [id=139600]

 

Date ( Creation )
1979

N
S
E
W


Supplemental Information
Report "User Guide for the BGS Soil Chemistry Data for Environmental Assessmentst" OR/12/050
Reference system identifier
OGP / urn:ogc:def:crs:EPSG::27700

 

Date ( Revision )
2005

Distribution format
  • Shapefiles ()

  Distributor

  +44 115 936 3276 
OnLine resource
BGS Homepage  

The BGS Homepage is an entry point to the BGS data services.

Hierarchy level
dataset Dataset
Other
dataset

Conformance result

Date ( Publication )
2011
Explanation
See the referenced specification
Pass
false

Conformance result

Date ( Publication )
2010-12-08
Explanation
See http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=OJ:L:2010:323:0011:0102:EN:PDF
Pass
false
Statement
The data is derived from soil geochemical surveys have been carried out at 24 urban centres in England, Scotland and Wales. Most of the surveys were undertaken by the BGS as part of the Geochemical Surveys of Urban Environments (GSUE) project (Fordyce et al., 2005), whereas Greater London, Wolverhampton, Manchester and Glasgow were sampled as part of larger multi-disciplinary projects. The concentrations of many potentially harmful elements including arsenic (As), cadmium (Cd), chromium (Cr), nickel (Ni), and lead (Pb) are above 'natural' background in urban environments as a result of a range of contaminative processes. Urban geochemical surveying is based on the collection of samples on a 500 m grid at a density of approximately 4 samples per km2 across the urban areas. Samples were collected from open ground as close as possible to the centre of each 500 m grid cell. At each sample site, composite samples based on 5 sub-samples taken at the centre and four corners of a 20m square, were collected from the topsoil ('A' soil sample; 5-20 cm depth) and subsurface ('S'soil sample; 35-50 cm depth). Approximately 40 chemical elements were determined in the <2mm size fraction of the 'A' soils.

gmd:MD_Metadata

File identifier
cfa3ad2f-f3f7-51cf-e044-0003ba9b0d98   XML
Metadata language
English English
Hierarchy level
dataset Dataset
Date stamp
2020-07-10
Metadata standard name
UK GEMINI
Metadata standard version
2.3

  Point of contact

Dataset URI
http://data.bgs.ac.uk/id/dataHolding/13605690
 
 

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