Designation:D6582–00StandardGuideforRankedSetSampling:EfficientEstimationofaMeanConcentrationinEnvironmentalSampling1ThisstandardisissuedunderthefixeddesignationD6582;thenumberimmediatelyfollowingthedesignationindicatestheyearoforiginaladoptionor,inthecaseofrevision,theyearoflastrevision.Anumberinparenthesesindicatestheyearoflastreapproval.Asuperscriptepsilon(e)indicatesaneditorialchangesincethelastrevisionorreapproval.1.Scope1.1Thisguidedescribesrankedsetsampling,discussesitsrelativeadvantagesoversimplerandomsampling,andpro-videsexamplesofpotentialapplicationsinenvironmentalsampling.1.2Rankedsetsamplingisusefulandcost-effectivewhenthereisanauxiliaryvariable,whichcanbeinexpensivelymeasuredrelativetotheprimaryvariable,andwhentheauxiliaryvariablehascorrelationwiththeprimaryvariable.Theresultantestimationofthemeanconcentrationisunbiased,moreprecisethansimplerandomsampling,andmorerepre-sentativeofthepopulationunderawidevarietyofconditions.1.3Thisstandarddoesnotpurporttoaddressallofthesafetyconcerns,ifany,associatedwithitsuse.Itistheresponsibilityoftheuserofthisstandardtoestablishappro-priatesafetyandhealthpracticesanddeterminetheapplica-bilityofregulatorylimitationspriortouse.2.ReferencedDocuments2.1ASTMStandards:D5792PracticeforGenerationofEnvironmentalDataRelatedtoWasteManagementActivities:DevelopmentofDataQualityObjectives2D6044GuideforRepresentativeSamplingforManage-mentofWasteandContaminatedMedia23.Terminology3.1Definitions:3.1.1auxiliaryvariable,n—thesecondarycharacteristicormeasurementofinterest.3.1.1.1Discussion—Inrankedsetsampling,informationcontainedinanauxiliaryvariableisusefulforrankingthesamples.Thisrankingmaymimictherankingsofthesampleswithrespecttothevaluesoftheprimaryvariablewhenthereiscorrelationbetweentheauxiliaryvariableandtheprimaryvariable.Auxiliaryinformationmayincludevisualinspection,inexpensivequickmeasurement,knowledgeofoperationalhistory,previoussitedata,oranyothersimilarinformation.3.1.2dataqualityobjectives(DQO)process,n—aqualitymanage...
