Assessment of soil quality, modelling in and around steel city Rourkela, Odisha, India

This work was conducted on assessing the soil quality in and around the steel city Rourkela and its prediction modelling by using regression analysis. The analysed data indicate: the soil is acidic (pH 4.2-6.0); electrical conductivity (EC) is 342.2-680 mu S/cm; total dissolved solids (TDS) is 122.5-189.2 mg/l; total organic carbon (TOC) is 0.58-1.46 mg/l; total organic matter (TOM) is in the range of 0.41-2.0 mg/l; the total N is 0.11-0.34 mg/l; and the C/N ratio is in the range of 2.25-9.1. The C/N ratio is < 8.0 indicating infertility of the soil, Na and K is in the required range, whereas TDS is more than the permissible limit. Ni, Pb, Cd, Cu, Zn, Cr, and Fe are higher than the permissible limit. This research work was carried out in 2019 to aware about the degradation of soil quality and future prediction in and around steel city Rourkela.