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CARTOGRAPHIC AND GEOMETRIC COMPONENTS OF A GLOBAL SAMPLING DESIGN FOR ENVIRONMENTAL MONITORING
Citation:
White, D., A. Kimerling, AND W. Overton. CARTOGRAPHIC AND GEOMETRIC COMPONENTS OF A GLOBAL SAMPLING DESIGN FOR ENVIRONMENTAL MONITORING. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Washington, D.C., EPA/600/J-92/292 (NTIS PB92217397).
Description:
A comprehensive environmental monitoring program based on a sound statistical design is necessary to provide estimates of the status of, and trends in, the condition of ecological resources. ampling design based upon a systematic grid can adequately assess the condition of many types of resources and retain flexibility for addressing new issues as they arise. he randomization of this grid results in the requirement that it be regular and contain equal area cells when project on the surface of the earth. fter review of existing approaches to constructing regular subdivisions of the earth's surface, we propose the development of the sampling grid on the Lambert azimuthal equal area map projection of the surface of the earth to the face of a truncated icosahedron fit to the globe. his geometric model has less deviation in area when subdivided as a spherical tessellation than any of the spherical Platonic solids, and less distortion in shape over the extent of a face when used for a projection surface by the Lambert azimuthal projection. exagon face of the truncated icosahedron covers the entire conterminous U.S. and can be decomposed into a triangular grid at an appropriate density for sampling. he geometry of the triangular grid provides for varying the density; and points on the grid can be addressed in several ways.