Roohallah Afraz

Heavy metal contamination of soil resulting from technology development and population increment, especially in industrial part of the world, is a cause of serious concern due to the potential health impacts of consuming contaminated produce and is known as one of the major environmental problems because of its effects on human, crops and ecosystem health. The main goals of the present research were to mapping five soil heavy metals (As, Cd, Cu, Pb, Zn) and assess possible sources of heavy metal contamination such as industrial activities, agricultural application and also mining activities, and assessing the relationship between landscape patterns (including Number of Patches, Edge Density, Largest Patch Index, Fractal Dimension) and soil heavy metals in Nahavand, Hamadan province, in Iran. Twenty eight soil samples from a total surface of 158112 ha were systematically collected from the top 0-20 cm of the soil in fall 2008 and the concentration of heavy metals was measured. IDW was applied for mapping the heavy metals concentration and mean of elements concentration was then calculated in hexagonal nets. For quantifying landscape pattern, various metrics such as NumP, ED, LPI, AWMPFD and Pland were calculated in patch and landscape scale based on the