Soil Pollution Characteristics and Remediation Experience of Industrial Land in Urban Renewal

Against the backdrop of the rapid transformation of industrial land in the Pearl River Delta, soil pollution has become a critical bottleneck restricting sustainable urban development, necessitating a clear understanding of regional pollution characteristics and the extraction of governance experiences. This study is based on soil pollution survey data from 25 typical sites in Guangzhou and Foshan between 2019 and 2024, employing descriptive statistics, frequency analysis, and pollution spatial stratification to analyze pollutant types, distribution, and their association with historical production functions. The results indicate that among the surveyed industrial sites, 92% and 84% of the contaminated sites were primarily polluted by petroleum hydrocarbons (C10~C40) and heavy metals, respectively; the pollution is mainly concentrated in the surface fill layers (0 m~2 m depth), with the spatial distribution of pollution closely matching historical production function zones. The study further reveals that latent pollution due to land-use changes and risks of exogenous input pollution should not be overlooked. Governance practices demonstrate that implementing a strict hierarchical management system and enhancing pollution tracing and dynamic monitoring are key to ensuring the safe reuse of industrial land. This study can provide a theoretical basis and technical reference for pollution remediation and risk management of industrial sites in the Pearl River Delta and across the country.