Effect of Flooding on Contamination of Agricultural SoilsBased on a Case Study

During the intensive flood in 1384, the floodplains in east Azerbayjan were waterlogged for a period of 1 month. The aim of the study was to assess the effect of the flood on the level of contamination of the soils in this region. For this purpose, 20 soil samples were collected from the area immediately after the flood event from the upper (0–30 cm) soil layer together with four samples from the 30–60 cm depth layer.  The analysis included basic physico-chemical soil properties, contents of Cd, Ni, Pb, Cu, and Zn metals. The concentrations of identified metals at all the samples were below the acceptable limits for agriculture use. The results show that this flooding episode in “clean” agricultural area had no immediate negative impact on the soils properties (organic matter percent, acidity, and nitrogen content) and did not result in excessive soil contamination.