Spatial assessment of soil heavy metal pollution in Coimbatore, India

Heavy metal contamination of soil is a serious risk to human health, agricultural production and the environment. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the concentration and spatial distribution of important heavy metals in the soils of Coimbatore, a fast industrializing and urbanizing area in Tamil Nadu, India. These metals include Mercury (Hg), Cadmium (Cd) and Arsenic (As). Throughout the district, 145 soil samples were gathered from peri-urban, industrial, residential and agricultural locations. Atomic absorption spectrophotometry was used to evaluate the samples and Geographic Information System (GIS) mapping and geostatistical methods were used to interpret the findings. The distribution patterns were shown using spatial interpolation techniques such as Kriging and Inverse Distance Weighting (IDW). The results showed that several heavy metal concentrations were higher than allowed by national and international norms, especially in industrial and roadside areas. In addition to being a fundamental tool for sustainable land use planning, pollution mitigation and environmental monitoring in the area, this spatial evaluation offers important insights into pollution hotspots. The results of this study highlight how soil deterioration caused by industrialization has an indirect impact on agricultural production.