Assessment of Lead Contamination in Soils of Urban Parks of Khorramabad, Iran

The urban environment quality is of vital importance as most people throughout the world live in cities. For this reason, there is a need to monitor lead levels in the environment, particularly in metropolitan areas. To date, no research on soil pollution in Khorramabad urban areas has been performed..
The aim of this study was to assess soils of Khorramabad metropolis in order to establish the concentration of lead and develop a contamination factor map..
Soil samples were collected from 25 different urban parks in Khorramabad, Iran. The mean Pb contents in the urban topsoil samples were compared with mean concentrations for other cities around the world. A spatial distribution map of lead was created by GIS..
Analysis of urban soil samples for Pb content indicated the presence of Pb in all soil samples collected from the 40 sampling sites in 25 urban parks at varying concentrations ranging from 0.05 - 35 mg/kg. Elevated levels of Pb in soil were found in the center of the city. The findings regarding contamination factor (CF) showed low to moderate contamination of urban soil by lead..
It was revealed that the contents in lead tend to increase in the historic and central part of the city. Map of lead distribution and contamination factor were created for this city indicating vehicular emission as the main source of lead pollution and likewise role of place and age of the park in accumulation of lead..