An improved index for monitoring metal pollutants in surface sediments

An approach for defining the quality of surface sediments of limited areas in terms of heavy metal contents is proposed. Sediments were taken on a bi‐dimensional mapping, for checking possible different sources of pollution in the case study, a harbour zone. Non residual metals were determined by ICP‐AES in cold diluted hydrochloric acid leachates of sediments. An “enrichment factor”;, r, can be computed for each metal: metals with r values exceeding unity can be considered as indicators of metal pollution. A “total enrichment factor”;, R, was proposed in order to assess the degree of pollution of sediments for each site. R is an adimensional value that accounts for the presence of metals that exceed threshold values determined by background concentrations.