To investigate influences of intensive human activities on soil environment dynamics in the peri-urban zone,the study was conducted in an area of 14km² in the vicinity of the Meishan Steel Industrial Corp.area.Totally 93 samples of topsoils were collected according to an aerophoto-based gridding design and concentrations of heavy metals Cu,Zn,Pb,Cr,Cd,Hg and As in the soil samples were determined.First of all,statistical analysis of the test results indicated that concentrations of the heavy metals in the studied soils did not exceed the safety values of the national soil quality criteria with the exception of Hg and Cd.Although the concentrations of a few metals in the some sampling sites slightly exceeded their average background values, the spatial variations of the concentrations of those metals,however,paralleled the pedo 2geochemistry of the study area.Hg concentrations in 61.3% of the soil samples were higher than the environmental safety criteria of the national soil quality standard,suggesting that Hg might be considered as a dominant element causing soil heavy metal pollution in the study area. Furthermore,the spatial variability of soil pollution in terms of heavy metals was investigated by combining pollution evaluation with geostatistical methods,and potential sources and possible entrance paths of heavy metal pollutants in those plots with measurable pollution were discussed.