PNNL

Abstract

Representative environmental data are necessary to make defensible environmental decisions. This paper focuses on the important role that sampling designs have in obtaining sufficiently representative data, which is to use the conceptual site model (CSM) and statistical methods to determine the number and location of samples necessary to achieve sampling objectives with required confidence and minimal cost. The importance of systematic planning and the development of an adequate CSM is stressed. Examples provide discussion of sampling designs that may be applicable for some sampling objectives, with reference to the Visual Sample Plan design software as an aid to design.