Abstract: Beneficial use is one of promising management alternatives for dredged materials.The contaminated dredged material from urban rivers in Shanghai was experimentally researched upon the environmental impacts when beneficially used as vegetative soil.The results show that middle-contaminated dredged material has the basic physical-chemical characteristics of the materials that can be used as vegetative soil.The inverse influences focus on the impact of nitrate on the groundwater and that of heavy metals,e.g.Cd,Hg,on the run-off and groundwater.The impact on nitrate only behaves at the first vegetative production season,while the impact of heavy metals relates to the ratio of the total volume to the transferable proportion.To restrict the applied volume of the contaminated dredged material per unit area and to choose the appropriate species of vegetable are reliable methods to control the inverse environmental influence.