This paper analyzed the possibility of reflectance spectra obtained under laboratory conditions for the assessment of Pb

Cd and Hg content in soil quickly.Besides original spectra（R）

several spectral indices were also calculated: first derivative reflectance spectra（FDR）

inverse-log spectra（lg（1/R）） and band depth（BD）.Partial least square regression（PLSR） was used to develop calibrations between spectral indices data and content of soil elements.Coefficient of determination（R） and root-mean-square error（RMSE） were used as criteria for best model.The results show that: 1) lg（1/R） is the best index to estimate soil heavy metal content

especially for Cd（R=0.8221） and Pb（R=0.8612）;2) The mechanism for estimating soil heavy metal element content by VIS-NIR-SWIR spectra is the absorption function of organic matter

iron-manganese oxide

and clay minerals;3) Simulated multi-spectral data have the good ability to estimate soil heavy metal elements content.While satisfactory results are obtained by laboratory spectra

more factors should be considered when using field data even satellite data.