ISSN 2320-5407 International Journal of Advanced Research (2014), Volume 2, Issue 8, 947-952 947 Journal homepage: http://www.journalijar.com INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF ADVANCED RESEARCH RESEARCH ARTICLE Environmental Assessment of Heavy Metal Distribution in Sediments of Tigris River within Baghdad City Abdul Hameed M.J. Al Obaidy 1 , Adel H. Talib 2 , Shahad R. Zaki 2 1 Environmental Research center, University of Technology, Baghdad, Iraq 2 College of Sciences for Woman, University of Baghdad, Baghdad, Iraq Manuscript Info Abstract Manuscript History: Received: 15 June 2014 Final Accepted: 18 July 2014 Published Online: August 2014 Key words: Geo-accumulation Index, Enrichment Factor, Contamination Factor, Pollution Load Index *Corresponding Author Abdul Hameed M.J. Al Obaidy This work contributes to the monitoring of Tigris river pollution by assessing the degree of heavy metals pollution in the sediment samples. The order of the mean concentrations of examined heavy metals: Cr>Zn>Ni >Pb>Cu>Cd. The results indicated that the entire tested heavy metal exhibit higher values than ISQG for fresh water sediments. Geo-accumulation Index (Igeo), Enrichment Factor (EF), Contamination Factor (CF), Degree of Contamination (C d ) and Pollution Load Index (PLI) were applied to evaluated heavy metals contamination in the sediment samples. Based on I- geo the sediment of Tigris river within the study area can be considered to be a strongly to extremely polluted with Cd, while the Igeo values of Pb show moderately polluted degree. With respect to specific sites, high EF values (e.g., 97.89 for Cd, 9.73 for Pb, 5.07 for Cr, 3.98 for Ni, 2.90 for Cu and 2.52 for Zn) are found at Site 3, which was located at the downstream and continuously receives a vast amount of wastewater and other wastes of the city. According to the calculated C d values, the pollution levels for the sites in the following order: 3>1>2, suggesting that the site located in the downstream is more seriously polluted by heavy metals than other sites, attributed to the feeding river input. Furthermore, site 3 displayed the highest PLI value and reflects the highest presence of all the examined heavy metals; indicating that this site is considerably affected by different anthropogenic activities. Copy Right, IJAR, 2014,. All rights reserved Introduction Heavy metals pollution mostly from anthropogenic activities represents a serious problem for human health [1]. Nevertheless, the terrestrial and aquatic ecosystem received elevated inputs of heavy metals as a result of an increase in atmospheric deposition and anthropogenic activities. Furthermore, they reported that heavy metals contamination in aquatic ecosystem is of critical concern, as the effect of heavy metals toxicity and their accumulation in aquatic habitats [2]. In the aquatic ecosystem sediments have been commonly used as environmental indicators due to high physical- chemical stability and their chemical analysis can provide considerable information on the assessment of anthropogenic activities [3]. Sediments are essential and integral parts of water regime. They can provide the substrate for organisms and through interaction with the overlying waters play an important responsibility in the aquatic ecosystem [4]. They are gradually more considered as both a carrier and a probable source of contaminants in aquatic systems. However, the investigation of bottom sediments, which accumulate most of the heavy-metal pollutants, enable us to get an integrated picture of the metals contamination since the level of metals in bottom sediments is the result of expanded sedimentation processes and does not undergo rapid changes because of varying external conditions [5]. Furthermore, Sediments are combination materials, consisting of inorganic components,