Abstract :Urban river systems have large potentials for determining the fate, distribution, and transport of water contaminants. This study was conducted to investigate the distribution and identify the sources of 16 Environmental Protection Agency priority polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons with respect to four different urban river landscapes (river channels managed with hard revetment, unmanaged, with wetland construction, and in city park). The significant differences of water nutrient physicochemical indices in the four landscapes were also compared with the general linear model, and their relationship with polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons were analyzed using principal component analysis. The results showed that the city parks and wetlands may improve the water quality and accelerate degradation of contaminants. Furthermore, the river channels in the park and wetland had lowered proportions of low molecular weight (2, 3-rings) polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in the river sediment compared to urban river channels with other two landscapes.
Key words: Jialu River, Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, Wetland, City park