Comprehensive assessment of the ecological and hygienic state of urban soils of the Central Black Earth region (on the example of the city of Voronezh)

The results of a comprehensive ecological and hygienic assessment of soils of urbocenoses of the city of Voronezh on the content of the most toxic heavy metals, pesticides, as well as natural and man-made radionuclides are presented. The results of the study of the upper layers of urban soils showed their compliance with the current requirements for the content of the main toxic elements. It was revealed that the level of concentration of heavy metals in the soils of urbanized areas significantly exceeds the content of elements in the soil of the control zone, devoid of anthropogenic impact. The practical absence of residual organochlorine pesticides in urban soils has been confirmed. The conducted radiological study confirms the relative ecological well-being of soils of urbocenoses of the studied region in comparison with the world average indicators and average values of specific activities of natural and technogenic radionuclides in Russia. It was revealed that the most important impact on the state of the soils of the urbocenoses of the city of Voronezh has auto and railway transport, energy enterprises, as well as a number of production enterprises. With the relative ecological well-being of soil samples of the Voronezh Region in terms of the absolute content of ecotoxicants, when analyzing the calculated total indicators of soil pollution of anthropogenically disturbed territories relative to the control (protected) zone, it was found that none of the studied sites has an acceptable degree of pollution. A moderately dangerous degree of soil pollution was identified near the Voronezh Reservoir and at a distance of more than 200 m from the M-4 highway. In accordance with the calculations of the total indicator of soil pollution, hazardous areas include Dimitrov Street in the city of Voronezh, territories near the airport, thermal power station, industrial enterprise “Voronezhsintezkauchuk”, as well as zones adjacent to the M-4 highway (0-100 m) and the railway line (0-300 m).