Assessment of the Environmental Pollution of some Heavy Metals in Abadan City Street Dust using Geographic Information System (GIS)

High concentrations of heavy metals in street dust are considered to be a serious risk to the human health and the environment. In this study, 30 dust samples were collected from the pavements in the main streets of Abadan to determine the level of pollution of heavy metals in the street dust. Heavy metal concentrations were analyzed by inductively coupled spectroscopy (ICP-OES) method. The level of heavy metals pollution was estimated based on enrichment factor, pollution index and Nemro Integrated Pollution Index. The average concentrations of heavy metals such as Pb, Zn, Cu, Cr, Cd, Ni, V, As and Co were 59.13, 287.50, 112.97, 50.03, 0.52, 56.77, 35.83, 7.10 and 7.53 mg/kg, respectively. Based on the average enrichment factor (EF), Ni, Cu and Pb had high levels of contamination and Zn contamination was high. According to the mean of pollution index (PI), heavy metals of Zn and Pb had a high contamination. According to the Nemro Integrated Pollution Index (NIPI), 96.66% of the samples had a high degree of contamination. The spatial distribution pattern of the heavy metals concentration showed that in the areas with high population densities, high traffic volumes and urban shopping centers, heavy metal pollution was severe.