Comparative Study on Soil Spatial Provenance Based on Soil Property Similarity Clustering and Pedogenic Environment Inference
CSTR:
Author:
Affiliation:

1.School of Geographical Sciences, Nanjing University of Information Science &2.amp;3.Technology;4.State Key Laboratory of Soil and Sustainable Agriculture, Institute of Soil Science, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Nanjing;5.School of Geographical Sciences, Nanjing University of Information Science & Technology

Clc Number:

Fund Project:

Supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No.42107322), the Key Deployment Projects of Chinese Academy of Sciences (No.KGFZD-135-19-10), and the Key Research and Development Project of China National Tobacco Corporation (No.110202402016)

  • Article
  • |
  • Figures
  • |
  • Metrics
  • |
  • Reference
  • |
  • Related
  • |
  • Cited by
  • |
  • Materials
  • |
  • Comments
    Abstract:

    【Objective】Soil spatial traceability has significant application value in forensic soil science and judicial identification.【Method】This study, based on 265 surface soil samples from Anhui Province, compares two soil provenance strategies: (1) a similarity-matching and spatial clustering approach, which filters similar samples using spectral and physicochemical property similarities and applies the DBSCAN algorithm to determine the potential source area of unknown samples; and (2) an inverse inference approach based on pedogenic environmental factors, which employs a random forest model to predict environmental variables such as soil parent material, land use, topography, climate, and vegetation, and infers provenance by integrating spatial distribution maps. By simulating provenance analysis, the accuracy and applicability of the two strategies were evaluated. 【Result】The results indicate that the similarity-matching strategy achieves higher localization accuracy under conditions of strong spatial proximity and well-established databases, while the inverse pedogenic environment inference strategy demonstrates superior spatial constraint capabilities in regions with limited databases or strong spatial heterogeneity. 【Conclusion】Each strategy has its own advantages, and their integrated application holds promise for further improving the accuracy and resolution of soil spatial provenance analysis.

    Reference
    Related
    Cited by
Get Citation
Related Videos

Share
Article Metrics
  • Abstract:
  • PDF:
  • HTML:
  • Cited by:
History
  • Received:May 28,2025
  • Revised:December 22,2025
  • Adopted:March 09,2026
  • Online: April 08,2026
  • Published:
Article QR Code