The Multi-incremental Sampling Methodology in the Study of Potential Contaminated Sites

Abstract

Environmental sampling of soils is carried out to monitor or characterise the concentration of substances in this environmental compartment. In potentially contaminated sites, sampling is used to characterise the quality of soils, general or specificity, depending on the historical activity developed in an area. The need to assess potentially contaminated areas by the most diverse substances (compounds or chemical elements), some of the less common, such as explosives, or the contamination (with some diffuse character) resulting from the deposition of substances by air, has led to the requirement to establish different strategies to approach the evaluation of these areas. Instead of a discrete sampling (D.S.) distributed at random, conditioned, or in mesh, there may be the convenience or the need for an incremental sampling (I.S.). This sampling strategy is appropriate for certain specific conditions, sampling objectives, and particular contaminants to obtain a single sample for analysis (at least three field replicates), representing the mean concentrations of elements and compounds of the decision unit adopted. This work intends to present the major features of the I.S. strategy and its advantages and disadvantages when comparing it with the common practice of the D.S. strategy.