Digital mapping of zinc in urban topsoil using multisource geospatial data and random forest

This study aimed to map the spatial patterns of Zn in urban topsoil by using multisource geospatial data and machine learning method. Geological map, digital elevation models, and Landsat images were used to extract data related to geology, relief, and land use types and a vegetation index. Urban functional types were derived from the fusion of Systeme Probatoire d'Observation de la Terre 5 images, points of interest, and real-time Tencent user data. A geodetector was adopted to select key environmental covariates. Random forest (RF) and geographically weighted regression (GWR) were employed to model and map Zn concentrations in urban topsoil. The results showed that urban functional type, geology, NDVI, elevation, slope, and aspect were key environmental covariates. Compared with land use types, urban functional types could better reflect the spatial variation in Zn. The RF and GWR models were established using the key environmental covariates, with leave-one-out cross-validated R values of 0.68 and 0.58 and root mean square errors of 0.51 and 0.57, respectively. The results indicated that digital mapping of Zn in urban topsoil by using multisource geospatial data and RF was feasible. RF might be more suitable to fit the stochastic characteristics of Zn in urban topsoils than GWR, which considers deterministic trends in modeling.