Spatial Variability and Pollution Analysis of Soil Cd in Tongling City, China

Aiming at providing useful information for risk assessment of environmental pollution, soil remedy and decision making, the paper interprets the spatial variability of Cd in soil in the Tongling mining area, China, and analyzes the pollution by using a geostatistical method. The dataset of soil elements content is derived from the project of "Multi-Target Regional Geochemical Survey in Jianghuai Drainage Area in Anhui Province" by Anhui Institute of Geological Survey, China. With normalized datasets that are transformed by Box-Cox, the variogram is fitted with spherical model. The results show that the variograms exhibit anisotropy, which is probably controlled by the distribution of ore deposits. The Cd in soil in the Tongling mining area has high pollution hazard. The pollution of Cd may result from lead-zinc deposits, the exploitation, and agricultural irrigation with waste water.