A method for the integration of satellite vegetation activities observations and magnetic susceptibility measurements for monitoring heavy metals in soil

We present a procedure for monitoring heavy metals in soil based on the integration of satellite and ground-based techniques, tested in an area affected by high anthropogenic pressure. High resolution multispectral satellite data were elaborated to obtain information on vegetation status. Magnetic susceptibility measurements of soils were collected as proxy variable for monitoring heavy metal presence. Chemical analyses of heavy metals were used for supporting and validating the integrated monitoring procedure. Magnetic and chemical measurements were organized in a GIS environment to be overlapped to satellite-based elaborations and to analyze the pattern distribution. Results show the presence of correlation between anomalies in vegetation activity and soil characteristics. The relationship between the distribution of normalized difference vegetation index anomalies and magnetic susceptibility values provides hints for adopting the integrated procedure as preliminary screening to minimize monitoring efforts and costs by supporting the planning activities of field campaigns. (C) 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.