Urban geochemistry in Kristiansand, Norway Belinda Flem a, ⁎, Ola A. Eggen a , Espen Torgersen a,b , Marita Kjøsnes Kongsvik c , Rolf Tore Ottesen a a Geological Survey of Norway, Pb 6315 Sluppen, NO-7491 Trondheim, Norway b Department of Geology and Mineral Resources Engineering, Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU), Trondheim, Norway c Sogn og Fjordane County Municipality, Pb 173, NO-6801 Førde, Norway abstract article info Article history: Received 20 June 2016 Revised 21 December 2016 Accepted 9 March 2017 Available online xxxx Kristiansand is one of the participating cities in the European URGE project (URban GEochemistry) that aims to map potentially toxic elements (PTEs) in the soil of European cities, identify sources of contamination, use health- based criteria for classification and cooperate with the local health authorities. For more than a century a metal- lurgical industry, including a large nickel smelter, was in operation in Kristiansand City. Despite the long indus- trial history of the Ni smelter, elevated Ni values (contaminated 200–b1200 mg/kg) in the surface soil (0–10 cm) are only found in a radius of b 1.5 km from the smelter and no samples within this zone are classified as extremely contaminated (120–b2500 mg/kg). Moderately elevated Ni-values (60–b135 mg/kg) are interpreted as natural elevated concentrations, and are ascribed to the local sulphide-bearing bands occurring within the banded gneiss that dominates the bedrock of Kristiansand. The general scarcity of easily accessible moraine and gravel in the Agder province and Kristiansand municipality has traditionally resulted in extensive reuse of urban soil, which might be reflected in some of the hot spots of PTEs in the suburban areas. None of the 300 samples collected in the area are above the Norwegian uncontaminated to moderately contaminated classification regarding Hg (1–b2 mg/kg) and Cd (1.5–b10 mg/kg). In general, the urban soil quality in Kristiansand is good and represents no hazard to human health. An exception is the residential areas close to the Ni smelter that are characterised by elevated values of As, Cu, Ni and Pb. Precaution has to be taken when old wooden houses are renovated to avoid the generation of new contamination of local soil and discharge to the Kristiansand fjord of PTEs that are in house paint. © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. Keywords: Geochemical mapping Metallurgical industry Soil Nickel Legislation 1. Introduction Kristiansand is one of the participating cities of the ‘Urban Geochemistry’ (URGE) project, initiated by the EuroGeoSurveys Geochemistry Expert Group. This project aims to map chemical ele- ments and other parameters defining soil quality in European cities, to identify sources of contamination, and to use health based criteria to classify the health risk from the most toxic elements in cooperation with the local health authorities. In Norway, the ‘Pollution Control Act’ of 1981 regulates protection against pollution and concerning waste. 1 It is based on the polluter pays principle; for soil pollution, the present landowner can be held lia- ble for investigation and remediation costs. The Geological Survey of Norway (NGU) started a geochemical mapping programme of urban soil in Norwegian cities in close cooperation with the local authorities at the beginning of the 1990s. The soil quality criteria were then based on guidelines proposed by Hauge and Breedveld (1991). Ten years later, a large survey for characterising soil in child-care centres and pub- lic playgrounds was initiated (Ottesen et al., 2008, 2011). This survey followed a new set of soil quality criteria given by the Norwegian Institute of Public Health in 2007 (Hansen and Danielsberg, 2009), which are based on the work of Hauge and Breedveld (1991), Vik and Breedveld (1999), Ottesen et al. (2007). At present, the soil quality of almost all larger cities in Norway has been mapped and some cities as, for example, Trondheim have even been mapped repeatedly (Andersson et al., 2010; Moe, 2015). In the present study, the concentration levels of inorganic elements of topsoil in Kristiansand has been analysed and evaluated regarding health based soil criteria given by the Norwegian authorities. Kristian- sand city has been the home of a metallurgical industry, including a nickel smelter, for N 100 years, and special attention on the impact from this industry will be given in the interpretation of the data and in the discussion of the element distribution in the topsoil of Kristiansand. Journal of Geochemical Exploration xxx (2017) xxx–xxx ⁎ Corresponding author. E-mail address: Belinda.flem@ngu.no (B. Flem). 1 https://www.regjeringen.no/en/dokumenter/pollution-control-act/. GEXPLO-05901; No of Pages 13 http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.gexplo.2017.03.004 0375-6742/© 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Journal of Geochemical Exploration journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/gexplo Please cite this article as: Flem, B., et al., Urban geochemistry in Kristiansand, Norway, J. Geochem. Explor. (2017), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/ j.gexplo.2017.03.004