ORIGINAL RESEARCH
The Evaluation of Heavy-Metals Pollution
in Soil Based on a Comprehensive Connection
Cloud Model
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1
School of Civil and Hydraulic Engineering, Hefei University of Technology, Hefei, 230009 China
2
Anhui and Huaihe River Institute of Hydraulic Research, Hefei, 230088, China
Submission date: 2023-02-05
Final revision date: 2023-07-19
Acceptance date: 2023-07-22
Online publication date: 2023-10-02
Publication date: 2023-11-10
Pol. J. Environ. Stud. 2023;32(6):5849-5858
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ABSTRACT
Evaluation of heavy metal pollution in soil mass relies mainly on index methods. Choosing suitable
methods to process indexes is key to obtaining accurate and reasonable evaluation results. Connection
cloud models have been commonly used to evaluate pollution indexes. However, generating a cloud
at each grade for each index is a tedious calculation. To address the randomness and fuzziness of soil
heavy metal pollution evaluation indicators, we propose a comprehensive connection cloud model that
couples the connection clouds of all indicators at each grade as sub-clouds. We establish the model by
combining the weights of each indicator to determine the soil heavy metal pollution grade. The proposed
model is effective and feasible for the evaluation of soil heavy metal pollution, as demonstrated through
examples and comparisons with other methods. The comprehensive connection cloud model overcomes
the traditional cloud models’ defect of requiring normal distribution for evaluated indicators and
considers the interaction between indicators. Thus, it provides a novel route for uncertainty analysis,
considering the fuzzy randomness between multiple interrelated indicators.