Metallic contamination of global river sediments and latest developments for their remediation

Abstract

This review article represents the comparative study of heavy metal concentration in water and sediments of 43 important global rivers. The review is a solitary effort in the area of heavy metal contamination of river-sediments during last ten years. The interpretation of heavy metal contamination in sediments has been verified with different indices, factors, codes and reference guidelines, which is based on geochemical data linked to background value of metals. It is observed that health hazards arise due to dynamics of movement of metals between water and sediments, which is primarily influenced by several factors such as physical, chemical, biological, hydrological and environmental. Also, the reason behind accumulation and assimilation of heavy metals on river water system is explained with appropriate mechanisms. Several factors e.g. pH, ORP, organic matter etc. are mainly involved in the distribution, accumulation and assimilation of metals in the sediment phase to water phase. Remediation technologies such as in-situ and ex-situ have been discussed for the removal of heavy metals from contaminated sediments. We have also compared the performance efficiencies of the technologies adopted by different researchers during the period 2003 to 2019 for the removal of metal bound sediments. Many researchers have preferred in-situ over ex-situ remediation due to low cost and time saving remediation effects. In this work we have also incorporated the safety measures and strategies which can prevent the metal accumulation in sediments of river system.

Keywords: Contamination; Heavy metals; Remediation; Risk assessment; River sediments.