Planning Urban Geochemical Mapping

Planning of a sampling activity has to be anticipated by a careful study of the human and environmental variables likely to affect urban soils characteristics. 

To realise an environmental study of an urban area, it is essential to have knowledge of city socio-economical development, to be aware of the location of 

Before sampling, it is important to be aware of the nature and origin of the soil (indigenous or imported). Gathering this information will lead to a more scientifically robust interpretation of data, being able to differentiate and characterise contaminated areas as distinct from baseline values. 

Sampling of the main urban areas of Campania region (Albanese et al., 2007 Cicchella et al., in press De Vivo et al., 2006 Fedele et al., in press Lima et al., 2007) has been based on grids with square cells of 1 km2 and 500 m2, respectively, for low anthropic pressure zones and for potentially polluted areas (downtown, industrial areas, etc.). Sajn et al. (1998) applied to the city of Ljubliana (Slovenia) a sampling grid with three cell orders 1 km2 for the surroundings, 500 m2 for the town and 250 m2 for clearly polluted zones. 

Once the sampling grid has been defined, each cell should be labelled with an alphanumeric code later used to identify correspondent samples collected in the 

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