Comparative evaluation of European methods for sampling and sample preparation of soils - the Portuguese contribution

The main purpose of this work was to prepare a Portuguese sampling strategy , according to the existing Portuguese recommendations, for the soil sampli ng exercise at Dornach in the framework of the CEEM soil project of the SMT Programme of the EU. Within this project, the results obtained from the Do rnach study were compared with the results obtained by other European parti cipants and also with the reference sampling. The objective of this compari son was to validate the method used and to evaluate possible factors of unc ertainty that may arise from the application of our national guideline as w ell as possible advantages. Another objective, also important, was to provi de information regarding the need for a harmonised procedure within the Eur opean Union related to soil sampling and sample preparation of soils, The r esults obtained were consistent with the results obtained by other particip ants, however, in the Portuguese recommendations there is a general lack of specific information that may complicate its application to polluted scena rios. In fact, those guidelines are valuable to detect the average contamin ation of the soil, but they are not useful to identify hot spots or the edg e influence in a contaminated land. As a conclusion, the results obtained b y the CEEM soil project helped to evaluate the Portuguese sampling plan. Th is may provide a basis for further standardisation of soil sampling for spe cific purposes, e.g. contaminated land, and to establish a technical suppor t for criteria used in the accreditation of laboratories for soil sampling. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved,