Dry sediments were collected from one roof and two roads in the central area of Beijing. The sediments were dry and wet sieved. The concentrations of total phosphorus (TP) and heavy metals were analyzed. The highest mass proportion of the dry sediments from the roads were between 125 and 300 μm in diameter, while the roof sediments were much smaller, with 75% of the total sediment mass between 40 and 74 μm in diameter. The concentrations of TP and heavy metals in the roof sediments were much higher than in the road sediments. The concentrations of the six heavy metals investigated had a similar order for all three sampling sites, with the Zn concentration always being the highest, followed by the Mn concentration, and the Ni concentration was always the lowest. After wet sieving, 76.9% to 91% of the TP in the sediments from the three sites remained in undesorbable particulate form, and 68.9% to 97% of the heavy metals were present in undesorbable particulate form. The concentrations of undesorbed heavy metals in the roof sediments tended to increase with increasing sediment size, but a similar trend was not found in the road sediments. This study shows that more attention should be given to the particulate matter in stormwater runoff, as reducing the amount of particulates will improve the efficiency of pollution control measures.
