Characterization of monochlorobenzene contamination in soils using geostatistical interpolation and 3D visualization for agrochemical industrial sites in southeast China

Persistent organic pollutants (POPs) originating from agrochemical industries have become an urgent environmental problem worldwide. Ordinary kriging, as an optimal geostatistical interpolation technique, has been proved to be sufficiently robust for estimating values with finite sampled data in most of the cases. In this study, ordinary kriging interpolation integrate with 3D visualization methods is applied to characterize the monochlorobenzene contaminated soil for an agrochemical industrial site located in Jiangsu province. Based on 944 soil samples collected by Geoprobe 540MT and monitored by SGS environmental monitoring services, 3D visualization in terms of the spatial distribution of pollutants in potentially contaminated soil, the extent and severity of the pollution levels in different layers, high concentration levels and isolines of monochlorobenzene concentrations in this area are provided. From the obtained results, more information taking into account the spatial heterogeneity of soil area will be helpful for decision makers to develop and implement the soil remediation strategy in the future.