Comparative assessment of heavy metal content in soils of different urban agglomerations: methodological approaches to environmental monitoring

Objective: We studied the regional characteristics of soil pollution with heavy metals and other chemical elements, presented their comparative ecological and hygienic assessment. Materials and methods: We detected the content of 12 elements in the soils of urban agglomerations of the city of Kyiv (park, residential and transport zones), Donetsk oblast (Mariupol, Pisky etc.) and in the vicinity of the city of Halych (Ivano-Frankivsk oblast) with the help of the method of optical emission spectrometry. We studied the gross content of heavy metals in soils, determined their mobile forms, calculated the concentration coefficients and the indicator of the total soil cover pollution of urban agglomerations, established characteristic relationships between metals and their technogenic geochemical associations. Results and discussion: Among the analyzed chemical elements in soils of urban areas, the high content of Al, Mn and Crattracts a special attention. In the number of cases, it was higher than the MAC and the background level. The characteristic technogenic geochemical associations of heavy metals for studied territories were established: Cu > Cr > Pb > Zn > Ni > Mn. The mobility of heavy metals in technologically polluted soils increases in comparison with the background levels. Conclusion: A comparative assessment of soil pollution in the surveyed regions of Kyiv, Ivano-Frankivsk and Donetsk showed that they are under complex environmental pressure because of anthropogenic and technogenic environmental pollution with heavy metals.