Assessment of the Heavy Metal Contamination of Roadside Soils Alongside Buddha Nullah, Ludhiana, (Punjab) India

Jaskaran Kaur, Sartaj Ahmad Bhat, Navdeep Singh, Sandip Singh Bhatti, Varinder Kaur and Jatinder Kaur Katnoria
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Jaskaran Kaur: Department of Botanical and Environmental Sciences, Guru Nanak Dev University, Amritsar 143005, India
Sartaj Ahmad Bhat: River Basin Research Center, Gifu University, 1-1 Yanagido, Gifu 501-1193, Japan
Navdeep Singh: School of Chemical Engineering and Physical Sciences, Lovely Professional University, Phagwara 144001, India
Sandip Singh Bhatti: Department of Botanical and Environmental Sciences, Guru Nanak Dev University, Amritsar 143005, India
Varinder Kaur: Centre for Advanced Studies, Department of Chemistry, Guru Nanak Dev University, Amritsar 143005, India
Jatinder Kaur Katnoria: Department of Botanical and Environmental Sciences, Guru Nanak Dev University, Amritsar 143005, India

IJERPH, 2022, vol. 19, issue 3, 1-24

Abstract: The present study was carried out to determine the physico-chemical characteristics and heavy metal contents in roadside soil samples collected during 2 sampling periods (September 2018 and April 2019) from 8 different roadside sites lying parallel to the Buddha Nullah, an old rivulet, flowing through Ludhiana, (Punjab) India. The contents (mg/kg) of seven metals (cadmium, chromium, cobalt, copper, lead, nickel and zinc) were estimated using a flame atomic absorption spectrophotometer. Among the metals analyzed, the contents of Cd, Co, Cu, Pb and Zn were found above the permissible limits. The results of the index of geoaccumulation (Igeo), contamination factor (CF), contamination degree (Cdeg), modified contamination degree (mCdeg), the Nemerow pollution index (PI) and pollution load index (PLI) indicate a moderate to high heavy metal contamination of the analyzed soil samples. The results of the potential ecological risk factor (ERi) and potential ecological risk index (RI) indicate a low to moderate risk of heavy metals in the studied soil samples. The Pearson correlation analysis revealed that most of the variables exhibited a statistically significant correlation with one or more variables during the two samplings. Multivariate analysis demonstrates that contents of heavy metals in the study area are influenced by anthropogenic and geogenic factors.

Keywords: Buddha Nullah; heavy metals; roadside soil; pollution indices; Pearson correlation; multivariate analysis (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
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