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Forensic soil provenancing in an urban/suburban setting: a simultaneous multivariate approach

Soil is a ubiquitous material at the Earth's surface with potential to be a useful evidence class in forensic and intelligence applications. Compositional data from a soil survey over North Canberra, Australian Capital Territory, are used to develop and test an empirical soil provenancing method. Mineralogical data from Fourier Transform InfraRed spectroscopy (FTIR) and geochemical data from X-Ray Fluorescence (XRF; for total major oxides) and Inductively Coupled Plasma-Mass Spectrometry (ICP-MS; for both total and aqua regia-soluble trace elements) are obtained from the survey's 268 topsoil samples (0–5 cm depth; 1 sample per km2). The simultaneous provenancing approach is underpinned by (i) the calculation of Spearman's correlation coefficients (rS) between an evidentiary sample and all the samples in the database for all variables generated by each analytical method; and (ii) the preparation of an interpolated raster grid of rS for each evidentiary sample and method resulting in a series of provenance rasters (“heat maps”). The simultaneous provenancing method is tested on the North Canberra soil survey with three “blind” samples representing simulated evidentiary samples. Performance metrics of precision and accuracy indicate that the FTIR (mineralogy) and XRF (geochemistry) analytical methods offer the most precise and accurate provenance predictions. Maximizing the number of analytes/analytical techniques is advantageous in soil provenancing. Despite acknowledged limitations, it is concluded that the empirical soil provenancing approach can play an important role in forensic and intelligence applications.


<b>Citation:</b> de Caritat, P, Woods, B, Simpson, T, Nichols, C, Hoogenboom, L, Ilheo, A, et al. Forensic soil provenancing in an urban/suburban setting: A simultaneous multivariate approach. <i>J Forensic Sci</i>. 2022; 67: 927–935. https://doi.org/10.1111/1556-4029.14967

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Identification info

Date (Creation)
2020-12-11
Date (Publication)
2023-10-31T00:36:53
Citation identifier
Geoscience Australia Persistent Identifier/https://pid.geoscience.gov.au/dataset/ga/145461

Identifier

Codespace

Digital Object Identifier

Cited responsible party
Role Organisation / Individual Name Details
Author

de Caritat, P.

Author

Woods, B.

Author

Simpson, T.

Author

Nichols, C.

Author

Hoogenboom, L.

Author

Ilheo, A.

Author

Aberle, M.G.

Author

Hoogewerff, J.

Publisher

Wiley Periodicals LLC

External Contact
Name

Journal of Forensic Sciences

Issue identification

Volume 67, Issue 3, May 2022

Page

927-935

Purpose

Article for submission to the Journal of Forensic Sciences

Status
Completed
Point of contact
Role Organisation / Individual Name Details
Point of contact

Commonwealth of Australia (Geoscience Australia)

Voice
Resource provider

Minerals, Energy and Groundwater Division

External Contact
Point of contact

Main, P.

MEG Internal Contact
Spatial representation type
Topic category
  • Geoscientific information

Extent

Extent

N
S
E
W


Maintenance and update frequency
As needed

Resource format

Title

Product data repository: Various Formats

Website

Data Store directory containing the digital product files

Data Store directory containing one or more files, possibly in a variety of formats, accessible to Geoscience Australia staff only for internal purposes

theme.ANZRC Fields of Research.rdf
  • EARTH SCIENCES

Keywords
  • Soil forensics

Keywords
  • soil properties

Keywords
  • Spearman correlation coefficients (rS)

Keywords
  • geochemical mapping

Keywords
  • interpolation

Keywords
  • Geographic Information System (GIS)

Keywords
  • performance

Keywords
  • Published_External

Resource constraints

Title

Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Licence

Alternate title

CC-BY

Edition

4.0

Website

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/

Access constraints
License
Use constraints
License
Other constraints

© 2022 Commonwealth of Australia (Geoscience Australia)

Resource constraints

Title

Australian Government Security ClassificationSystem

Edition date
2018-11-01T00:00:00
Website

https://www.protectivesecurity.gov.au/Pages/default.aspx

Classification
Unclassified
Language
English
Character encoding
UTF8

Distribution Information

Distributor contact
Role Organisation / Individual Name Details
Distributor

Commonwealth of Australia (Geoscience Australia)

Voice facsimile
OnLine resource

Link to Journal

Link to Journal

Distribution format

Resource lineage

Statement

Article for submission to the Journal of Forensic Sciences

Metadata constraints

Title

Australian Government Security Classification System

Edition date
2018-11-01T00:00:00
Website

https://www.protectivesecurity.gov.au/Pages/default.aspx

Classification
Unclassified

Metadata

Metadata identifier
urn:uuid/6d6d100c-6b53-4b78-98e1-56b36b74b4cd

Title

GeoNetwork UUID

Language
English
Character encoding
UTF8
Contact
Role Organisation / Individual Name Details
Point of contact

Commonwealth of Australia (Geoscience Australia)

Voice
Point of contact

Main, P.

MEG Internal Contact

Type of resource

Resource scope
Document
Name

Journal Articles and Conference Papers

Alternative metadata reference

Title

Geoscience Australia - short identifier for metadata record with

uuid

Citation identifier
eCatId/145461

Metadata linkage

https://ecat.ga.gov.au/geonetwork/srv/eng/catalog.search#/metadata/5167d912-6784-4371-9938-3931e84ca6f1

Metadata linkage

https://ecat.ga.gov.au/geonetwork/srv/eng/catalog.search#/metadata/77ec218b-b525-4d73-a5a4-58ef070a653b

Metadata linkage

https://ecat.ga.gov.au/geonetwork/srv/eng/catalog.search#/metadata/6d6d100c-6b53-4b78-98e1-56b36b74b4cd

Metadata linkage

https://ecat.ga.gov.au/geonetwork/ofmJ3/eng/catalog.search#/metadata/6d6d100c-6b53-4b78-98e1-56b36b74b4cd

Date info (Creation)
2019-04-08T01:55:29
Date info (Revision)
2019-04-08T01:55:29

Metadata standard

Title

AU/NZS ISO 19115-1:2014

Metadata standard

Title

ISO 19115-1:2014

Metadata standard

Title

ISO 19115-3

Title

Geoscience Australia Community Metadata Profile of ISO 19115-1:2014

Edition

Version 2.0, September 2018

Citation identifier
https://pid.geoscience.gov.au/dataset/ga/122551

 
 

Spatial extent

N
S
E
W


Keywords

Geographic Information System (GIS) Soil forensics Spearman correlation coefficients (rS) geochemical mapping interpolation performance soil properties
theme.ANZRC Fields of Research.rdf
EARTH SCIENCES

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