This paper is the result of environmental geological survey engineering.

Objective Small-scale drainage catchment in mining areas usually have natural high geological background values of heavy metals, therefore, the traditional unified reference value or standard value for heavy metal pollution assessment can no longer meet the requirements of ecological environment service function impact assessment, land restoration management, and soil restoration requirements in the process of mine ecological environment supervision. It is of great significance to carry out investigation and evaluation of heavy metal pollution in the mining area of shallow mountain areas under the guidance of scientific theory of earth system.

Methods The crux of soil heavy metal pollution and ecological risk assessment in mountainous areas lies in the division of survey and evaluation units-the division of survey and evaluation scales, the determination of assessment criteria-the establishment of geochemical baselines, and the establishment of assessment mathematical models.The investigation and evaluation unit dividing method, as well as three methods for determining assessment criteria for heavy metal pollution including environmental quality standard, geochemical baseline and ecological effect method were reviewed in this article.

Results The classification, applicability and development status of heavy metal pollution and ecological risk assessment models, application of new techniques and methods for geochemistry baseline survey and evaluation of soil heavy metal were summarized for evaluation of heavy metal pollution in the mining area.

Conclusions All these reviews were aiming to provide reference baseline, quantitative ruler and method support for determine the baseline geochemical characteristics of heavy metals in the disturbed environment, tracing back the background characteristics of heavy metals, revealing the sources of pollution and the mechanism of migration and transformation of heavy metal, and methods for early warning of ecological environment pollution and ecological environment restoration support.