The Environmental Geochemistry Department has been dealing with complex investigations that include fundamental and multidisciplinary studies, aimed at:

– Eco-geochemical assessment of sites
– Geochemical survey and mapping
– Environment and health risk assessment
– Urban and mining geochemistry
– Identification of risk groups in the population
– Hydrochemistry, surface water quality assessment
– Environmental geochemistry and food safety

Spatially, investigations of the Department are focused on urban, mining and agricultural sites and cover almost all environmental compartments: soils, water, dust, snow, air, crops, human bio-substrates concerning pollution with heavy metals, pesticides, dust, and so on.

Such a scope of activities allows the Department to lead and participate in over 30 state, governmental budget supported, national and international projects, grants and contract based research relating to environmental issues of mining industry, tailing repositories, toxic material repositories and burial sites, pollution of transboundary rivers, risk assessment of pollution of farm crops growing within the mining impact zones, detection of eco-geochemical peculiarities of urban sites, assessment of pollution levels of different environmental compartments, identification of risk groups and vulnerable groups in the population. Presently an abundant, dynamic geochemical database has been compiled which helps us monitor a geochemical history of the environment.
Environmental geochemical investigations imply a large amount of spatially and temporally defined scientific data which serve as an excellent methodic base for multidisciplinary investigations, and availability of such data allows the Department to be open to scientific cooperation with other Departments of the CENS and with a number of universities and academic institutions both in Armenia and abroad, and implement joint investigations and projects with genetics and health specialists, geographers, agriculturists, GIS and remote sensing, food safety experts.