Improving contaminated land data communication through the developing of an environmental indicator

Abstract

Environment contamination is a widespread problem in all countries around the world. Contaminated sites are consequence of land use and occupation without environmental concerns, and it can cause contamination of superficial soil, subsoil, and groundwater. This issue affects urban planning, human health as well natural resource availability. The management of contaminated land data and its communication to stakeholders is a significant driver to achieve sustainable urban planning, promoting equally sustainable cities and communities. Therefore, tools to improve comprehension of environmental quality of cities is essential to face this challenge. Here, we develop an environmental indicator to analyze contaminated land data and communicate its complexity to non-technical stakeholders. The indicator developed, adopts 15 variables and considering three parameters: polluting substance concentration, affected environmental matrices, and the environmental behavior of the polluting substance. A dataset has been elaborated containing information about 25 contaminated sites of Lapa District, the pilot area of São Paulo city, and the environmental indicator was applied, resulting in four environmental contamination levels: low, moderate, high, and remarkably high degrees, existing in an individually site.