Pollution assessment and sources identification of metal inorganic substances in surface sediments in Dongjiang River

An extensive survey was conducted in surface sediments of Dongjiang River, Guangdong. This article adopted the method, index of geo-accumulation, to estimate the quality status of these metals. The results showed that Dongjiang was polluted by the some metal inorganic substances. The results of Principal Component Analysis ( PCA) showed that the heavy metals in the sediments of Dongjiang River came from different sources: “traffic” element, “metallurgy and forge” element, “erosion of rocks” element and element of construction. The cluster analysis of PCA showed that 35 stations could be divided into five groups.