Assessment of Zn, Pb, Cd, and Cu Contamination in Surface Soils of Urban Parks in City of Hamedan

Nowadays, soil contamination with heavy metals is a serious threat to the environmental and human health, which can lead to adverse effects on human health through accidental ingestion or breathing contaminated dust, particularly in public spaces where citizens spend most of their leisure time. Therefore, this study was conducted to investigate Zn, Pb, Cd, and Cu in surface soils of urban parks in city of Hamedan in 2017. A total of 60 surface soil samples were collected from Baba Taher, Eram, Madani, Shahrvand, and Pardis urban parks. The heavy metals content in samples were determined after acid digestion of soil samples, using ICP-OES. The spatial distribution maps of heavy metals in soil were prepared with Inverse Distance Weighting (IDW) interpolation method by means of ArcGIS. Also, all statistical analyses were performed using the SPSS statistical package. The results showed that the concentrations of elements (mg/kg) in soil samples with an average of 7. 95 ± 4. 30 for Zn, 2. 34 ± 1. 10 for Pb, 0. 06 ± 0. 07 for Cd, and 3. 10 ± 1. 10 for Cu were lower than the EPA and EU Commission maximum permissible concentration. According to heavy metal concentration maps, except for Pb, the spatial distribution patterns for Zn, Cd and Cu contents in the surface soil samples of urban parks in the northern part of the city were lower than in the southern part. The computed values of Igeo, CF, and PLI indices showed that the quality of the surface soil of urban parks was at acceptable level. However, it should be noted that discharge of hazardous chemicals into the environment through anthropogenic sources and construction of the urban parks on the edge of the roads with high traffic intensity may lead to soil contamination in such public places.