Heavy Metals in the Soils of the Islam Shahr Urban Area, South of Tehran

Islam Shahr is relatively small city 10km to the South of Tehran, Iran. It is located within the Recent Alluvium Formation of Tehran alluvials. This formation is associated with heterogeneous to poorly sorted clays and silts. The overall objective of this study was to understand better the nature of soil contamination in this area, including three aspects: (1) to investigate the main sources of heavy metal contamination in the area; (2) to determine contamination trends and pollutant types in the area; and (3) to find a proper evaluation approach to metal contamination in this area. Such information should be useful for developing safe areas for parks in the Islam Shahr area while minimizing the adverse effects of soil contamination on human health. In most geochemical studies, element concentrations are usually normalised to the contents of a common reference or background, thus enabling the calculation of the enrichment or depletion of elements against a baseline. Since the early work on soil geochemistry of Islam Shahr is not available, the elemental compositions of these soils were normalised using average upper continental crust values. Islam Shar has developed during the past 15 years and such conataminations are high for this short period of time.