Modeling heavy metal movement in soil: review and further study directions

With the development of industries and their discharges of pollutants, soil contamination by heavy metals has become increasingly the world wide environmental problem. It has been a hot topic to study the distribution, transformation and fates of heavy metals in soils and the remediation of contaminated soils, with mathematic models and computer simulation as research tools. This paper reviews the progresses in the researches on modeling the heavy metal movement in soils. The discussion is focused on the characteristics and applications of Convection-Dispersion models and stochastic empirical models, including the limitations and the further study directions of the models. Combining the modeling of heavy metals in soils with MIS or GIS is of significance in future research, to supply a useful tool for environmental protection and agricultural management decision-making on heavy metal pollutants management.