Heavy metal contamination in selected urban coastal regions in US and China

With urbanization and economic development in coastal area, metal pollution in coastal environment has been a problem. Estuaries and coastal intertidal zone are important habitats for aquatic and marine life. In the meantime, sediment is a repository of contaminants and records the pollution history. Sediment quality reflects the long-term health status of an estuarine or coastal system and can be evaluated by sediment quality guidelines/criteria, metal enrichment factors and other indicators. In this study, we summarize the results mainly from our previous studies in metal pollution in sediments in urban estuarine and coastal systems in US and China, including New York Harbor and Yangtze River estuary in metropolitan areas and Xiamen Bay and Jiaozhou Bay. The information from this study expands our knowledge in understanding metal pollution in urban coastal systems and assessing environmental quality impacted by industrialization and economic development.