INFLUENCE OF THE URBAN WATER ENVIRONMENT FROM HUMAN ACTIVITIES: A CASE STUDY WITH IDENTIFICATION AND QUANTIFICATION

The influence of the urban environment from human activities is inevitable because of the high density of the people and traffic. In this study, the water from a representative urban river (the moat of the Suzhou city) in northern Anhui Province, China have been collected and analyzed for eight kinds of trace metal concentrations (Ti, V, Cr, Mn, Co, Ni, Cu and Zn), and then analyzed by statistical methods (factor analysis and positive matrix factorization - PMF) for the identification and quantification of the anthropogenic influences. The results indicate that the water samples have mean concentrations of Cr > Ni > Ti > V > Cu > Zn > Mn > Co, and some of the metals are higher than the water from other rivers outside the city, implying that the moat water have undergone more serious pollution from anthropogenic activities. Three sources have been identified by factor analysis and PMF model, including the natural source represented by Ti, V, Cr, Co, Ni, Cu and Zn, the human living source represented by Mn, and the motor vehicle source represented by Cu and Zn, and their mean contributions are 44.0%, 22.5% and 33.5%, respectively. The study indicates that the influence from anthropogenic activities (56.0%) for the trace metals in the moat is higher than the natural contribution (44.0%).