The effect of road and railway traffic on the soil quality from the Public Garden of Galati, Romania

Abstract

In this article are studied samples of soil collected from Public Garden of Galați, Romania. This location was chosen to observe the negative influence of road and railway traffic on the soil quality. The soil samples were collected from the surface (0 cm), 5 and 30 cm, from the all four principal and secondary garden entrances and one sample from the playground area. The analytical method used to study the soil samples was X-ray fluorescence spectrometry (XRF), a non-destructive technique and very popular in environmental studies, that provided qualitatively and quantitatively information of the elements contained in soil. The results presented a strongly negative influence on soil quality from the road traffic, but the railway traffic didn’t have a strong impact on the soil quality because it was related to person transfer.