In order to investigate spatial and temporal distributional characteristics of major water qualities in the Saemangeum area during the Saemangeum dike construction, salinity, COD, dissolved nutrients(DIN, Silicate) and heavy metals were analyzed from the surface water collected in April, May, August and November 2002. The overall value of Salinity, COD, DIN, and silicate in surface waters were in the range of $13.08{sim}31.96;psu$, $0.12{sim}3.43;mg/L$, $0.001{sim}2.638;mg/L$, and $0.010{sim}3.181;mg/L$, respectively. The COD and DIN in each survey showed the highest concentration at the mouth of Mangyeong river estuary(St. 1) where freshwater flow into the Saemangeum area. The concentrations of nutrients were high in the inner part of the Saemangeum dike with low-salinity, and low nutrients in the outer part of the dike with high-salinity, which strongly indicated that concentrations were adjusted by physical mixing. The ranges of dissolved metals and acid-soluble Hg in surface seawater were $0.006{sim}0.115{mu}g/L$ for Co, $0.26{sim}0.114{mu}g/L$ for Ni, $0.14{sim}0.93{mu}g/L$ for Cu, $0.04{sim}0.53{mu}g/L$ for Zn, $0.010{sim}0.043{mu}g/L$ for Cd, $0.010{sim}0.795{mu}g/L$ for Pb, and $0.25{sim}4.16{mu}g/L$ for Hg. The highest concentrations of some metals except for Cd were found at the estuary(Sts. 1 or 3). In most cases, a decreasing order of metal concentrations towards open sea(low-salinity$
ightarrow$high-salinity) was observed and showed positive relationship with DIN and silicate caused by land base pollutants input. On the other hand, due to Cd desorption from suspended solids in saline water, dissolved Cd concentrations were high in high-salinity area and low in low-salinity. In November, Co, Zn, Cu and Pb were relatively high in the northern area of the outer-side of Saemangeum, which was only influenced by the Geum river discharge. The concentrations of most dissolved metals of this study were lower than those of the past data in this area, but higher than those in Lena river estuary under the pristine environment.