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In countries characterised by a strong and widespread degree of contamination,the ranking of priorities in the framework of a regional environmental soil rehabilitation plan is an absolute necessity.On the large scale,pollution indices represent a tool for determination of the intensity of potential adverse effects that could occur in an environment exposed to a chemical stress; however,a significant weight to possible exposure pathways and to the effective amount of exposed population should be given in decision-making processes focused on the safety and protection of human health.A georeferenced geochemical database,reporting the concentration data of 10 elements(As,Co,Cr,Cu,Fe,Hg,Ni,Pb,V,Zn)in 719 composite samples of topsoil,and 129 samples of bottom soil collected across the central-northern part of the Zambian Copperbelt Province,was used to produce a region risk assessment by means of a Geographical Information System(GIS)..Regional risk was calculated also taking into account the different lifestyles of the resident population in accordance with the main land use variations(Urban area,Agricultural land,Flooded area,Forest,Grassland/Uncultivated land)recorded in the Zambian Copperbel Province.The regional distribution of risk was calculated for both soil/dust and food ingestion,considered the most effective pathways to contaminants,and it was coupled to the demographic datadistribution of the Copperbelt Province,expressed as classes of population.As a consequence,the regional risk was weighted on the basis of the amount of the potentially exposed residents and this practice allowed to prioritise the risk and to establish a priority score of the areas where follow-up activities should be carried out.Given the results obtained for the study area,the developed method,which can certainly be improved by further applications,could become a useful and practical tool to assist environmental professionals in taking decisions about the management of environmental risk at a regional scale with a considerable saving of resources and a minimisation of costs.