Abstract ▼ AI-Helper

The concectration and distribution of contaminants obtained from a contaminated land investigation or an environmental geochemistry survey constitutes the basis of a decision-making process on environmental policies or of scientific researches. As the quality of data determines the reliability of th...

The concectration and distribution of contaminants obtained from a contaminated land investigation or an environmental geochemistry survey constitutes the basis of a decision-making process on environmental policies or of scientific researches. As the quality of data determines the reliability of the result, the investigation plan should be adjusted according to the purpose of the investigation. In general, the effort to improve the data quality had been focused mainly on the QA/QC procedures in laboratories. The rapid progress of analytical instrument has also contributed toward improving the analytical precision to a sacrificable degree. Nevertheless, in many cases, it is not the analytical precision that needs improvement for the better precision of overall measurement process: it is rather during the sampling process in the field that is responsible for the poor precision. To assess the data quality on a measured value, ISO recommends to provide information on "measurement uncertainty" along with the measured value. The measurement uncertainty in an environmental measurement context can be explained as the statistical number that expresses the degree of the uncertainty stemming from the sampling and analytical procedures. There is a cost involved in order to improve the precision of sampling and analytical methods so as to decrease the degree of measurement uncertainty. The economical point of compromise in an investigation planning can be achieved when the allowable degree of uncertainty has been set before-hand. The investigation can then be planned accordingly not to exceed the uncertainty limit. Furthermore, if the measurement uncertainty estimated from the preliminary investigation can be separated into sampling and analytical uncertainties, it can be used as a criterion where the resources for the investigation should be allotted cost-effectively to reinforce the weakest link of the whole investigation process. This paper aims to present a method of estimating the level of measurement uncertainty of a measured contamination concentration at a site used as an example and to show how the estimated uncertainty can be applied to serve the particular purpose of an investigation.

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