GEOSPATIAL QUANTIFICATION OF POLLUTANT LOADS IN PIRAEUS PORT AND THE SURROUNDING AREA, GREECE

Ports are small semi-closed marine areas that host numerous pollutant activities and act like hot spots and secondary pollutant sources for the adjacent coastal area. Sea bottom sediments have an essential role as natural ultimate sink of pollutants entering into the marine environment therefore it is very important to assess the extent of sediment contamination. For this purpose geospatial and statistical techniques should be applied. At the present paper, a geostatistic approach was used to generate the metal pollution dispersion to the Piraeus port and its surrounding area, as this port is regarded as the largest Greek seaport and one of the largest ports in Europe. A number of sea sediments were collected, treated with a mixture of strong acids for being digested and their metal content was measured with flame AAS. Metal concentrations were provided and metal prediction surfaces were created by using the Kriging interpolation method. In addition, agglomerative hierarchical cluster analysis was applied furnishing with metal associations. Average metal values were compared with those used as standards and guidelines for classifying the level of chemical contamination of dredged material for disposal.