The FLUCOS project (Assessment of the influence of historical mining, industry and geological features on the geochemical background levels of FLUvial and COastal Sediments and their risk implications) is financed by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation under the 2020 call for "R+D+i projects", within the framework of the state programs for the generation of knowledge and scientific and technological strengthening of the R+D+i oriented to the challenges of society.
Aim
This project aims to study the geochemistry in rivers and coastal systems to distinguish sources (of natural or anthropogenic origin) based on the total concentration of an element or compound in sediment and water samples. It also intends to define an ad hoc methodology to define these background levels in a watershed and to calculate the environmental risk derived from contaminated sediments.
Objectives
• To carry out a complete characterization of freshwater sediment quality within the selected watersheds.
• To establish the geochemical reference values for the freshwater sediments of the selected watersheds, from the analytical results and their statistical analysis and to define a methodology that can be extrapolated to other basins.
• To estimate the environmental risk derived from the affection in the freshwater sediments.