Soil pollution is a source of danger to the health of people, even to those living in cities. The anthropogenic pollution caused by heavy industries enters plants then goes through the food chain and ultimately endangers human health. In the context, the knowledge of the regional variability, the background values and anthropogenic vs. natural origin of potentially harmful elements in soils is of critical importance to assess human impact. The present study was undertaken on soil contamination in Surat, Gujarat (India).

The aims of the study were: i) to determine extent and distribution of heavy metals ii) to find out the large scale variability, iii) to delineate the source as geogenic or anthropogenic based on the distribution maps and correlation of metals in soils.

Reprinted with Permission from Springer's Open Choice