Multivariate analysis of the contents of metals in urban snow near traffic lanes in Novi Sad, Serbia

Abstract

During December 2009, snow was collected at twenty two locations across the urban area of Novi Sad, directly from roads and from traffic islands near crossroads. The total metal concentration was determined for each of ten metals (Al, Ca, Cu, Fe, K, Mn, Na, Ni, Pb and Zn) using the ICP-OES analytical technique. Ni was found to have the lowest concentration (0.0265 mg dm(-3)). Na was the metal with the highest concentration (10786 mg dm(-3)), which was the consequence of sodium chloride being used as a de-icing salt on the roads. The metal with the second highest concentration at all locations was Ca; this was most likely the result of soil dust. The Spearman rank correlation coefficients between analyzed metals were calculated to determine how the concentrations of the metals were related. Cluster analysis was performed on the obtained data sets, using both the hierarchical and partitioning methods in order to identify associations among metals and/or locations. It was shown that traffic density was not the most important factor that caused the differences between the concentrations of the metals in the samples.