Pollution Level Assessment Based on Soil and Tree Leaves Samples in Debrecen, Hungary and Valencia, Spain

Abstract

In this research, soil and leaves samples were collected from Debrecen, Hungary and Valencia, Spain to undergo elemental analysis using ICP-OES to determine whether the detected pollutants within the samples have a mathematical relationship with the urban gradient. Additionally, the data is used to determine the bioaccumulation of the pollutants within the tree species of Tillia europeae and Citrus sp. and also the determination of the pollution index. From the data uncovered, it was observed that within Debrecen, there is high correlation between the accumulation of pollutants within the soil and leaves samples in comparison to the observation for Valencia. Thus, it was concluded that the soil characteristics in Debrecen was more defined/stagnant in comparison to Valencia's more homogenous soil character found in rural, peri-urban and urban areas.