The objective of this paper is to elucidate the environmental capacity of heavy metal in soils of an urbanization gradient zone of Urumqi City, a total of 88 surface soil samples were thereby collected from the typical gradient zone including urban, suburban, rural and wasteland areas, and heavy metal contents of Cd, Hg, As, Pb, Cu, Ni, and Zn in soils were measured, and the characteristics and spatial distribution pattern of the environmental capacity of soils was analyzed based on the GIS and the method of comprehensive environmental index (PI). As a result, the investigation showed that heavy metal contents in topsoil of the urbanization gradient zone along the areas of urban, suburban, rural and wasteland differed in a certain degree, and Hg had been evidently enriched in soils of all the areas of the gradient zone; the mean PIs of heavy metals in soils of the urbanization gradient zone were arranged in order of decreasing magnitude: rural> suburban>wasteland> urban, the relevant environmental capacity of all the areas being mediocre. As to the spatial pattern, individual environmental capacity index of each single heavy metal in soils of those areas was different, and low PI mainly distributed in the urban area, which indicated a significant impact of urbanization on soil environmental capacity. The dynamic annual capacity and static annual capacity of each heavy metal were in order of decreasing magnitude: Zn> Ni> Pb> Cu> As> Hg> Cd. In addition, the dynamic annual capacity of heavy metals in soils of each arear of the gradient zone showed a trend 20 a > 40 a > 60 a > 80 a > 100 a. The aver-age dynamic annual capacity of every kind of heavy metal in soil of each gradient zone area was greater than the static annual capacity in fixed number of years, and as a whole, the environmental capacity of soils tended better. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]