Current sampling methods require a large number of samples to account for spatial variation of environmental covariates, which often conflicts the available financial resources. Thus, efficient sampling strategies are desirable. The aim of this study was to evaluate the potential of land-surface segmentation in stratifying a landscape into homogeneous areas, which can be used as support in opti...

In Flanders, sampling guidelines for investigations on contamination of soils are in development. One detailed sampling guideline is currently available with respect to the prospective investigation in the frame of the decree related to soil sanitation. Four strategies for sampling may be followed as a function of available information about pollution sources. Guidelines indicate what has to be...

The need exists to understand the environmental parameters that affect inactivation of Cryptosporidium parvum oocysts in soil under field conditions. The inactivation of C. parvum oocysts placed in the natural environment was studied at a dairy farm in western New York State, USA. Seventy sampling points were arranged in a grid with points 150 m apart using the Geographic Information System. Th...

A strategy for sampling soil from intact monolith lysimeters was established based on measurements of spatial heterogeneity within the lysimeter area. This was part of an ongoing study to determine relationships between soil microbial diversity and nutrient loss by leaching. The sampling protocol had to allow for collection of soil on a regular basis (as opposed to destructive sampling) and ens...

Monitoring changes in soil C has recently received interest due to reporting under the Kyoto Protocol. Model-based approaches to estimate changes in soil C stocks exist, but they cannot fully replace repeated measurements. Measuring changes in soil C is laborious due to small expected changes and large spatial variation. Stratification of soil sampling allows the reduction of sample size withou...

Much attention has been given to sampling design, and the sampling method chosen directly affects the sampling accuracy. The development of spatial sampling theory has lead to the recognition of the importance of taking spatial dependency into account when sampling. This text uses the new Sandwich Spatial Sampling and Inference (SSSI) software as a tool to compare the relative error, coefficien...

this study was mainly designed to investigate and identify the amounts and types of heavy metals in the soils of national iranian oil refining & distribution company in shahrood region and tried to establish a logical relation between the presence of heavy metals and their damage on vegetation. in addition, considering the power of drained soil and due to the proximity of ground water in shahro...

The inherent variability of pasturelands makes it difficult to sample soils and accurately characterize a pasture. Indirect methods such as soil electroconductivity (EC) can be used to rapidly, noninvasively, and inexpensively quantify soil variability. The objective of this study was to determine if rapidly collected, georeferenced soil information could be used to propose an accurate, multist...

this study aimed to evaluate regional soil borkhar of the metals lead and cadmium has been made. in this field study fires visits to the regions. the limit of this study located in the east refineries, petrochemical and power plant to 20 km was selected. the 41 soil samples from depths of 0 to 10 cm in area and were randomized. soil samples were transported to the laboratory and by air was dry ...

Soil data users in The Netherlands were inventoried for current and future data needs. Prioritized data needs were used to design the Netherlands Soil Sampling programme (NSSP) as a framework containing 3 groups of related projects: map upgrading, map updating and upgrading of pedotransfer functions. In each one group, the sampling design, performance criteria and optimal sample size were defin...