Analytical investigations and chemometrical characterization of polluted soils

Summary Soil samples were taken in the surroundings of an industrial plant with heavy metal emission. A convenient digestion method for the determination of the mobile anthropogenic part of the heavy metal contents of soils was selected. This heavy metal contents were determined by atomic absorption spectrometry. The application of different multivariate statistical methods such as cluster analysis, multi-dimensional variance and discriminant analysis and factor analysis enables the objective characterization of polluted areas and of the degree of pollution as well as the identification of emission sources.