Geo- environmental Assessment of Heavy Metals and Organic Compounds in the soils of Shoubra El Kheima Area, Egypt

Abstract

Pollution of the natural environment is a widespread problem throughout the world. The pollutants (inorganic contaminants as heavy metals, organic contaminants as aliphatic and aromatic hydrocarbons and mixtures of them) accumulate in the soil through anthropogenic inputs and may be transfer to the food chain. Urbanization and increasing industrial activities led to environmental and public health problems. Shoubra El Kheima is located in the southeast of the Nile delta, and it measures approximately 30 km2 on the northern corner of Greater Cairo between longitude 31º.235 - 31º.295 E and latitude 30º. 10 - 30º .16 N. It is characterized by an extremely arid, long hot rainless summer, short rainy mild winter, high evaporation, and low relative humidity. Geologically, there are not any outcrops in the study area, as the exposure of ancient rock is covered by recent Holocene soils over all the study area. This soil is derived from Ethiopia during summer floods. The Nile Delta basin contains a thick sequence of Neogene-Quaternary clastics. The sedimentary sequence of the Nile Delta basin is classified into three sedimentary cycles. Nile Delta aquifer is considered one of the main sources of water (drinking water, irrigation, domestic and industrial uses) in the study area. Forty soil samples were collected from the study area from three different land use at depth (15-30 cm). The soil samples were then analyzed