Rapid screening of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in port sediments using multiblock spectroscopy and hierarchical...

Marine petroleum hydrocarbon contamination remains a persistent concern in port environments, where polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) can accumulate in sediments and pose long-term ecological risks. However, routine PAH assessment relies on labor-intensive laboratory analyses, which can restrict monitoring frequency and spatial coverage. This study developed a rapid screening framework for PAH contamination in port sediments using simplified solvent extraction, portable spectrophotometry, and multiblock hierarchical classification based on ultraviolet fluorescence, ultraviolet transmission, and visible transmission spectra. A total of 277 sediment samples were collected from 10 major ports in South Korea. Among these, 124 samples from four ports were analyzed for PAHs by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry, yielding total PAH concentrations ranging from 13.7 to 8170 ng·g^-1 dry weight, and were used for model development and validation. The optimized hierarchical model was evaluated using Venetian-blinds internal cross-validation and an external validation set excluded from model development, achieving classification accuracies of 0.87-0.90 across the four contamination categories. These results suggest that the proposed framework can support rapid, screening-level identification of PAH contamination gradients and potential hotspots in port sediments, thereby complementing conventional chemical analysis for sediment monitoring and management.