Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
1.4.1. Maps
Several different maps and different types of maps (general area and detailed) are needed
for sampling. General area maps are used to determine if adjacent areas can affect or be
affected by sampling activities in the field. Detailed maps are used to record sampling
activities in the field. For this reason many simple copies of this map will be needed.
Whenever an activity is carried out in the field it should be noted on a map. Thus, there
should be a separate map for each activity and each day's activities in the field.
An additional essential map is a soils map of the area. Such a map shows the soils and
their extent on an aerial photograph. They allow samplers to know which soils are being
sampled and to find uncontaminated reference soils to sample. Soils maps, an example of
which is shown in Figure 1.2, are included in a soil survey of the area and give invaluable
information about the area's characteristics.
In addition to maps, photographs of portions of the Earth's surface are also available.
These may be simple pictures or specialized digitalized photographs, such as the digital
orthophoto quarter quadrangles (DOQQ). These digitalized photographs are corrected in
such a way that they faithfully represent the Earth's surface. Because they are digitalized
they can be used with geographic information system (GIS) displays discussed below.
1.5. SAFETY
The safety of the personnel, the field, and the area surrounding the field must always be
of concern. Of these three, the safety of the personnel is of prime concern. In field
situations unforeseen discoveries are common. They may be simple and interesting or
they may be life-threatening. The first rule of field sampling is thus to never sample
alone. This is particularly important where the field is hundreds or thousands of hectares
in size and will involve being long distances from help, and applies whether the sampling
is done on foot, in a boat, on an airplane, or in an all-terrain vehicle. If you cannot walk
to safety you may also not be able to row, swim, fly, or drive to safety!
The second rule of sampling is to wear and have available safety equipment. This
means wearing appropriate clothing and eye protection at all times. Even under what
seem to be the safest conditions additional safety equipment must be readily available.
In addition to keeping the personnel who are doing the sampling safe, precautions must
be taken to make sure that unsafe conditions do not develop in other areas either inside or
outside the field being sampled [4]. The field office, associated laboratory, and sample
storage area are part of this concern. Also of concern is that samples do not spread
contamination during storage and transport. More detailed information about safe
sampling will be given in Chapter 4.
1.6. SAMPLING
The environment is four-dimensional. It has three physical dimensions—length, width,
and depth. The dimension of time also has a significant effect on the contaminant,
 
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