Geographical Research, Volume. 39, Issue 6, 1233(2020)
Through reviewing 2323 papers on the potential ecological risk index (RI) proposed by H?kanson during 2001-2018, especially focusing on 203 papers published in some famous journals at home and abroad since 2008, the following problems were found: (1) H?kanson's RI is an ecological risk assessment method based on the theory of water environment sedimentology. Therefore it is not suitable to be applied to soil, especially not to water solute, atmospheric particulate matter, surface dust, plant or crop, etc. However, 49.29% of the 2323 papers have misplaced evaluation objects. (2) The grading criteria of potential ecological risk factor (Er) and RI proposed by H?kanson can not be mechanically copied. So, it should be adjusted according to the specific types and quantities of pollutants studied. The limit value of the first level of Er should be the maximum value of toxic coefficient (Stmax) of all the evaluated pollutants, and the limit value of the first level of RI can be obtained by ∑St i×1.13 with ten integers. However, most of the studies ignored the types and quantities of the pollutants, and copied indiscriminatingly the Er and RI classification criteria of H?kanson, which led to incorrect conclusions. The papers used the incorrect criteria of Er and RI, taking up 49.01% and 61.40% of the 203 papers, respectively. Although some researchers had adjusted the RI classification criteria according to the types and quantities of pollutants, only 23.81% of the papers are correct. (3) When only single ecological risk of Hg or comprehensive ecological risk of multiple heavy metals including Hg are evaluated, the StHg can not be replaced by TrHg.
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Jianhua MA, Changxu HAN, Yuling JIANG.
Received: Jul. 28, 2019
Accepted: --
Published Online: Oct. 9, 2020
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