Relatorio

Journal of Geochemical Exploration 93 (2007) 21 – 34 www.elsevier.com/locate/jgeoexp

Geochemical background and baseline values of toxic elements in stream sediments of Campania region (Italy)
S. Albanese a,⁎, B. De Vivo a , A. Lima a , D. Cicchella a,b b a Dipartimento di Scienze della Terra, Università di Napoli “Federico II”, Via Mezzocannone 8, 80134 Napoli, Italy Dipartimento di Studi Geologici e Ambientali, Università degli Studi del Sannio, Via Port'Arsa 11, 82100 Benevento, Italy

Received 16 November 2005; accepted 13 July 2006 Available online 25 September 2006

Abstract In this paper are discussed the baseline geochemical maps of elements harmful to human health, using concentration values of 2389 stream sediment samples collected over the Campania region (Southern Italy). Each sample was digested in aqua regia and analysed by ICP-MS. For compilation of baseline geochemical maps, a recently developed multifractal inverse distance weighted (lDW) interpolation method and spectral analysis (S-A) was applied, using a new geochemistry dedicated GIS software (GeoDAS). The aim of this study is to discriminate between the geogenic natural content (background) and the anthropogenic contribution in the collected sediments. The definition of background values, in contrast to baseline values, is very important in determining the extent of polluted areas in countries like Italy, where environmental legislation has not yet established intervention limits for stream sediments. In the Campania region, baseline and background values are often coincident, where the samples represent catchment basins away from urban or industrial areas. Potential polluted areas are often very small in size, except for some sites where the anthropogenic influence on sediments is clearly evident, due to the wide extent of local industrial and agricultural activities (e.g., the Sarno River catchment basin). R-mode factor analysis has proved very useful in distinguishing geochemical