Abstract: Chromium in soil is a typical toxic and harmful heavy metal element, and its content in soil is closely related to natural conditions and human activities. A quantitative spatial correlation analysis between human activities and Cr content in soil will provide references for prevention programs and governance decisions of regional heavy metal pollution. Based on the data collection of land use types and heavy metal content in soil, the spatial distribution of chromium content in the soil of Jiangning Economic and Technological Development Zone was obtained based on the GIS spatial analysis function. By introducing the concept of information entropy, a quantitative approach studying on the correlation between chromium content in soil and land use types was established. The results show that: qualitatively, the spatial distribution of chromium content in soil shows obvious regional differentiation in the study area; quantitatively, the spatial correlation coefficient K of chromium content in soil and land use type was 0.13 in the area, and there is a certain spatial correlation between them. But the K value is far less than 1, indicating that the land use type is not the only factor or the dominant factor affecting the chromium content. When applying this method, attention should be paid to the spatial scale applicability of variables. If both variables show obvious spatial differentiation on a certain spatial scale, the method is applicable, and the higher the data accuracy, the more reliable the analysis results obtained; If one or two variables have no obvious spatial differentiation on the research scale, the correlation calculated by this method will approach zero.

Key words: soil, heavy metal chromium, land use, information entropy, spatial correlation