Abstract:Aiming at the selection of independent variables in geographically weighted regression (GWR) analysis, the construction of GWR model was explored by using soil heavy metal Cu content as the dependent variable and soil hyperspectral data as the independent variables. The best spectral transformation that characterized the relationship between the soil heavy metal Cu content and the spectral reflectance in the study area was determined, throughing the correlation analysis of the spectral reflectance of the original soil and its eight transformation methods. The candidate variable subsets was established by using the ordinary least squares method, and the GWR model was constructed by using the regression analysis method. The advantages of the GWR model, as well as its prediction accuracy, were compared with that of the GWR model constructed by traditional methods. The results showed that the correlation coefficient between the logarithmic differential transformation spectrum and the soil heavy metal Cu content was from -0.626 to 0.618, which could best represent the relationship characteristics between the soil spectrum and the soil heavy metal Cu content in the study area, and it was the best spectral transformation method for the study area. The results of the regression analysis indicated that the optimal GWR prediction model for the soil heavy metal Cu content in the study area had four independent variables combined of 2 308 nm, 1 400 nm, 2 197 nm, and 2 138 nm wavelengths, which had the smallest Akaike information criterion (AICc), the largest determination coefficient (R^2) and adjust coefficient of determination (R^2_adj). Compared with the GWR model constructed by the traditional method, the GWR model constructed by the regression analysis method was more concise with stronger model robustness and higher prediction accuracy.