Abstract: The contents of heavy metals in surface sediment in coastal areas in southern Zhejiang were analyzed， and the ecological risk of heavy metals were assessed by Hakanson potential ecological risk index method and coefficient of contaminates. It was shown that the situations of heavy metals pollution of each sampling site in the three areas were similar. The contamination status of Cu， Pb， Zn and Cr reached medium level. The average comprehensive pollution index of the three areas was 6.44， 7.23 and 6.45， respectively， which belonged to the low pollution level. The ecological risk index of the three areas decreased as DT（45.29）>CN（42.26）>QJK （42.16）， which were all below 150 and exhibited low ecological risk. For spatial distribution， the pollution level reduced by degrees with the distance far away from the coast in CN and QJK.

Key words: coastal areas in southern Zhejiang, heavy metals, surface sediment, ecological risk