SPATIAL ANALYSIS OF SOIL HEAVY METALS IN DOHUK, NORTH OF IRAQ

Abstract

Ecosystems and human health are both seriously threatened by soil contamination, especially when it comes to heavy metals. This study aims to investigate the geographical variability of Heavy metals such lead (Pb), chromium (Cr), and cadmium (Cd) in the soils in the northern Iraqi district of Shekhan. The present study used geostatistical methods namely conventional kriging and inverse distance weighting (IDW) and machine learning Gradient Boosting Decision Tress (GBDT) was selected as accurate models in the spatial distribution of heavy metals in the study region through the high value of R2 , 0.99, 0.97 and 0.97 of Cd, pb and Cr respectively. The results are intended to further our Seeks to enhance our knowledge of heavy metals.to examine the spatial distribution of these heavy metals. The results aim to enhance our understanding of heavy metals and provide guidance for managing and mitigating soil contamination. The Shekhan region is an oil field located in northern Iraq. It spans approximately 280km² and contains oil reserves in formations dating back to the Cretaceous, Jurassic, and Triassic periods. The majority of the production comes from the Upper Jurassic fractured carbonates. As of April 2020, over 70 million stock tank barrels of oil had been produced from the field, with estimated reserves of 578 million stock tank barrels. 60 soil samples of the plowing layer (0–20) were taken. The result indicated that significant variations in the heavy metals concentrations within the studied locations are shown by the coefficients of variation (CV) for cadmium (Cd), lead (pb), and chromium (Cr) (46.703%, 42.575%, and 46.627%, respectively). This variability suggests the complex relationship between different anthropogenic and environmental variables and soil contamination by heavy metals.