A novel approach for road runoff sampling

Abstract

Conventional methods of road runoff sampling come with various difficulties. Hence, a novel experimental method was tested in and around Budapest, using a passenger car to collect wheel splash samples. Total concentrations of selected heavy metals were compared to the results of an earlier conventional runoff sampling program for verification. Despite the inhomogeneous set of splash samples, the ratio of measured heavy metals was found to be fairly stable throughout the entire data set. Ratios in the new splash samples and the formerly collected gully drain runoff samples were also found to be identical, showing that sample composition is not distorted by the new method. Urban sites generally exhibited higher concentrations than motorway sites, especially for Cu and Pb, the suspected cause of which is the difference in traffic dynamics. Traffic volume dependence is indirectly indicated by the clearly observable differences between weekday and weekend samples collected from urban sites.