A short sequential extraction procedure(SSEP) was applied to the determination of more readily available metal fractions of Zn, Cu, and Cd in the riverbed sludge in Hejiagou, Harbin, China. From the results, a potential order of metal availability in seven sludge samples was proposed: Cd＜Cu＜Zn, and samples S1,S2, and S4 were used for the determination of total Zn content, and sample S3 used for the determination of total Cu content in the mobile and the mobilizable fractions showed the highest pollution risk. The results with regard to metal mobility in sludge samples were confirmed by the individual and global contamination factors that were calculated from the nonresidual and resi-dual metal contents. The results obtained from metal-release experiments after exposure of sludge to environmental conditions agreed well with those obtained from both SSEP and the individual and global contamination factors, indicating that the maximum metal release could be an additional factor to evaluate the heavy metal availability in contaminated sludge. A substantial time saving was achieved by using the metal-release method in the present study.