Monitoring the Soil Copper of Urban Land with Visible and Near-Infrared Spectroscopy: Comparing Spectral, Compositional, and Spatial Similarities

Heavy metal contamination in urban land has become a serious environmental problem in large cities. Visible and near-infrared spectroscopy (vis-NIR) has emerged as a promising method for monitoring copper (Cu), which is one of the heavy metals. When using vis-NIR spectroscopy, it is crucial to consider sample similarity. However, there is limited research on studying sample similarities and determining their relative importance. In this study, we compared three types of similarities: spectral, compositional, and spatial similarities. We collected 250 topsoil samples (0–20 cm) from Shenzhen City in southwest China and analyzed their vis-NIR spectroscopy data (350–2500 nm). For each type of similarity, we divided the samples into five groups and constructed Cu measurement models. The results showed that compositional similarity exhibited the best performance ( R p 2 = 0.92, RPD = 3.57) and significantly outperformed the other two types of similarity. Spatial similarity ( R p 2 = 0.73, RPD = 1.88) performed slightly better than spectral similarity ( R p 2 = 0.71, RPD = 1.85). Therefore, we concluded that the ranking of the Cu measurement model’s performance was as follows: compositional similarity > spatial similarity > spectral similarity. Furthermore, it is challenging to maintain high levels of similarity across all three aspects simultaneously.