After the 1995 flooding of the rivers Meuse, Rhine and Waal in the Netherlands, a survey was carried out in which samples were taken of deposited river silt and underlying topsoils from 16 sites in the three river regions. The aim of the survey was to gain an insight into the possible effects of deposited metals on general topsoil quality. Neutron activation analysis was used to determine concentrations of: As, Ba, Br, Ce, Co, Cr, Cs, Eu, Fe, Hf, K, La, Lu, Na, Nd, Rb, Sb, Sc, Sm, Ta, Tb, Th, U, Yb, Zn and Zr. Further sample analysis consisted of the assessment of the particle size distributions and organic matter contents. For As, Ba, Co, Cr and Zn, the results for both silt and topsoils were processed into so-called target- and intervention values, which indicate intact and threatened soil functional properties, respectively. The data indicate that the deposition of river silt did not result in marked decreases in general topsoil quality.