Along with other oil-producing regions of the world, environmental pollution is characteristic also for the Absheron Peninsula of Azerbaijan, which has long been subject to the impact of various anthropogenic factors. A large amount of such toxic substances as heavy metals, hydrocarbons and surface-active agents, and so on were released into soil and water basins leading to the change of natural ecosystem throughout the region. A primary goal of this chapter was to study the level of heavy metal pollution in the Absheron industrial region, while evaluating the potential ecological risk posed by each toxic metal including Hg, Cd, As, Cr, Pb, Cu, Ni, and Zn. Analysis of the calculated values of pollution index (PI), enrichment factor (EF), geoaccumulation index (Igeo), and ecological risk factor (Ei) indicates the contribution of anthropogenic sources to heavy metal accumulation in soils and sediments of the study area.
Part of the book: Heavy Metals