A Master’s thesis at the College of Agriculture, University of Kirkuk, evaluated the pollution of soils adjacent to agricultural drainage channels located in southern Kirkuk Governorate, Iraq.
The thesis, submitted by Huda Hadi Mohammed Ahmed, aimed to assess the chemical elements and cations and anions present in the soil and prepare maps using Surfer 8 software. It also evaluated the soils adjacent to agricultural drainage channels for contamination by selected heavy metals, including iron, lead, zinc, nickel, cadmium, and manganese. In addition, the study sought to determine heavy-metal pollution indices for the study area and produce corresponding geospatial maps, as well as assess soil salinity and prepare geospatial maps using Surfer 8.
The study concluded that the soil pollution index based on the contamination factor for iron, manganese, and lead indicated low contamination in all samples and in the reference samples from drainage channels B and A. For zinc and nickel, contamination levels ranged from low to moderate in channels B and A, except for Sample 9 for nickel, which showed very high contamination. The contamination factor for cadmium in channels B and A ranged from low to moderate and very high contamination, while the reference samples for both channels showed very high contamination.
