To identify the concentrations of heavy metals and to assess soil environmental quality 29 soil samples were collected from Urban area (UA) and Suburban area (SA) in Busan, Korea. An assessment was conducted using soil pollution index (SPI) and geoaccumulation (Igeo) in order to establish the concentration of heavy metal. Accumulation of heavy metals in urban vegetable soils are affected by multiple factors including soil properties and climatic conditions. The concentration of Cd, Cu, As, Hg, Pb, Cr 6+ , Zn, and Ni were found to be greater in soils more than the background. The geoaccumulation map revealed index of geoaccumulation (Igeo) beyond class 2 (medium pollution) for As and Ni in Suburban area (SA), whereas Hg is enriched in Urban area (UA).

The study of urban agriculture is focused on conceptual, active and policy establishment, and studies on the health of the vegetable gardens are minimal. This study analyzed the chemical properties of urban vegetable soils. The area of 29 urban vegetable gardens in the Busan area was divided into suburban area and urban areas. In the urban areas, the soil of the vegetable garden was high in content of organic matter and exchangeable cations and it is believed that there is more fertilizer in urban areas. The average value and range of soil fertility items were 6.87 (5.64~8.04) for pH, 43.4 g kg -1 (6.6~88.3) for organic matters, 845.3 mg kg -1 (115.9~2758.1) for available phosphate, 1.30 cmol kg -1 (0.23~3.66) for K + , 17.27 cmol kg -1 (6.05~46.50) for Ca 2+ , 2.88 cmol kg -1 (0.94~3.49) for Mg 2+ , and 2.66 dS m -1 (0.53~10.40) for electrical conductivity.

The introduction of total organic carbon (TOC) as a new organic matter index for industrial wastewater is under consideration. In this study, we investigated characteristics of organic pollutant indexes (TOC, BOD 5 , COD Mn , COD Cr) for 11 industrial categories comprising 210 industrial wastewater samples from Busan, Korea. Average organic concentrations for chemical manufacturing and food manufacturing industries are higher than that for other industries. The organic matter oxidation rates of COD Cr and COD Mn for TOC are 88.7% and 51.9%, respectively. Furthermore, the COD test can be underestimated for organic compounds in wastewater. The correlation between TOC and organic matter indexes was in the order of COD Mn (r = 0.970) > COD Cr (r = 0.956) > BOD 5 (r = 0.812)(p < 0.01). In conclusion, the introduction of TOC, which has higher oxidation rate than COD and high correlation with existing organic matter indexes, is appropriate as an organic index to replace COD.