ORIGINAL RESEARCH
Calculating Environmental Background Value:
A Comparative Study of Statistical Versus
Spatial Analyses
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School of Resources and Civil Engineering, Suzhou University, Anhui, China
National Engineering Research Center of Coal Mine Water Hazard Control, Anhui, China
Submission date: 2017-11-28
Final revision date: 2018-01-24
Acceptance date: 2018-01-27
Online publication date: 2018-07-31
Publication date: 2018-11-20
Corresponding author
Sun Linhua
School of Resources and Civil Engineering, Suzhou University, Anhui 234000, China;
National Engineering Research Center of Coal Mine Water Hazard Controlling, Anhui 234000, China, 49# Bianhe Road, Suzhou City, Anhui Province, China, 234000 Suzhou, China
Pol. J. Environ. Stud. 2019;28(1):197-203
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ABSTRACT
Local environmental background is important for environmental management. In this study,
lead concentrations of shallow groundwater samples from the urban area of Suzhou in Anhui
Province, China were measured and analyzed by statistical and spatial analyses for calculating the
environmental background value. The results show that the lead concentrations in the groundwater
range from 4.16-11.5 μg/L, and all of the samples were classified to be Class III or better according
to the groundwater quality standard of China. The samples have medium coefficient of variation and
low p-values of normal distribution test, suggesting that it may have been influenced by anthropogenic
activities, which was further demonstrated by the consistency of the distribution of the samples with high
lead concentrations and the areas with high density of transportation, as well as the high-low cluster of
the spatial autocorrelation analysis. The environmental background values have been calculated to be
3.74-8.62 and 3.48-10.3 μg/L with box plot and spatial autocorrelation analyses, respectively. The study
demonstrated that for calculating the environmental background value, the statistical and spatial methods
should be chosen according to the current state – especially pre-consideration about the distribution of the
elements or pollutants.