Characterization of the constitutional heterogeneity of contaminated soils and its influence on sampling uncertainty

无偏和可重复的土壤采样和浓度测量是环境现场评估代表性的关键。大多数土壤取样分析指南和方案都要求样品具有代表性，但从未对其进行适当的描述和定量定义，往往导致不正确和随意的抓取取样。采样理论或采样理论与实践（STP）定义了代表性和不确定性，并提供了控制它们的定量和方法学原则。尽管STP在提高对污染土壤取样的基本知识和做法的认识方面具有巨大潜力，但它在这方面的应用并不多，而且取得的成功程度也各不相同。大多数缺点涉及高估的不确定性和样本大小，这可能是由于实际的数学实施CH这是不适合污染situation.The预期的成果，这项研究将是显着的进步知识的CH污染土壤和一个新的验证理论框架，设计代表性的污染土壤采样程序和分析实际采样方法的不确定性。这将提高补救活动的成本效益，并减少遗漏污染的风险。在每年500亿美元的国际市场中，这些结果对加拿大的补救行业也很重要。

Unbiased and reproducible soil sampling and concentration measurements are key to the representativeness of environmental site assessment. Sample representativeness is required in the majority of guidance and protocols on soil sampling for analysis, but it is never given a proper description and quantitative definition, often leading to incorrect and haphazard grab sampling. Such unrepresentative soil sampling is a significant source of uncertainty in site remediation projects.The Theory of sampling or Sampling Theory and Practice (STP) defines representativeness and uncertainty and provides quantitative and methodological principles to control them. Despite its significant potential for improving knowledge on the fundamentals and practice of contaminated soil sampling, the STP has only been marginally applied for this purpose and to varying degrees of success. Most shortcomings involve an overestimation of uncertainty and sample size, which may be due to the practical mathematical implementation of CH which is not appropriate for contaminated soils.The expected outcome of this research will be significant advances of knowledge on the CH of contaminated soils and a new validate theoretical framework for designing representative contaminated soil sampling procedures and analysing the uncertainty of actual sampling methods. This will the cost effectiveness of remediation activities and reduce the risk of missed contamination. In an international annual market of $50 billion US, these outcomes can also be significant for the canadian remediation industry.