effect of open dump on geotechnical properties and heavy metal concentrations of soil in north of hilla city, babylon governorate, iraq

Random and unscientific disposal of municipal waste is an important factor affecting the geotechnical characteristics and concentrations of heavy metals in the soil. unconfined compressive strength, atterberg limit, and maximum dry density tests were included. these tests were designed to determine the effects of open waste dumps on geotechnical properties and the concentration of heavy metals in the underlying open dump soil. soil samples collected from the landfill at al-sayyahia village, babylon governorate, showed changes in the rates of geotechnical properties evaluation, as the value of the confined compressive strength decreased by high rates from 54 to 22 kn/m2. as well, when comparing the maximum values of dry density of samples from the control site, neighboring the landfill, the average value decreased from 1.91 to 1.74 gm/cm3. chemical tests revealed that the ph and organic matter percentages in the open dump soil samples were significantly higher than in the control site. these percentages ranged from 9.67% and 2.542% to 7.4% and 0.215%, respectively. in addition, the average value of electrical conductivity was 5.6 ms/cm in the open dump soil, whereas in the control site was 3.6 ms/cm. iron, lead, copper, nickel, chrome, zinc, cadmium, and arsenic have average concentrations of 4.64%, 14.02, 44.86, 236.36, 278.36, 95.26, 2.034, and 13.84 ppm, respectively. they are higher at open landfill sites than in control site samples.