Abstract: Aimed at the distribution characteristics and ecological risk of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in the river of an urban relocation area， the 16 priority PAHs by the Chinese Ministry of Environmental Protection were quantitatively analyzed in the water and sediment of Weigong River of Shenyang City， China from October 2011 to September 2012. The spatial distributions of PAHs were revealed by seasonal sampling and along-the-river sampling， and the ecological risk of PAHs was preliminarily assessed with entropy evaluation. The results showed that the mean concentrations of total PAHs were 0.721μg·L^-1 in the water and 3777.8ng·g^-1 in the sediment. A positive correlation was found between the concentrations of TOC (total organic carbon) and PAHs in both water and sediment. As a whole， the potential risk of PAHs pollution in Weigong River could be categorized as low to moderate. However， naphthalene and anthracene might cause toxicity to the aquatic organisms at some sampling sites.

Key words: relocation area, organic pollutant, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), distribution characteristics, ecological risk