skip to main content
OSTI.GOV title logo U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Scientific and Technical Information

Title: Accounting for false negatives in hotspot detection

Technical Report ·
DOI:https://doi.org/10.2172/946674· OSTI ID:946674

Hotspot sampling designs are used in environmental sampling to identify the location of one (or more) contiguous regions of elevated contamination. These regions are known as hotspots. The problem of how to calculate the probability of detecting an elliptical hotspot using a rectangular or triangular grid of sampling points was addressed by Singer and Wickman in 1969. This approach presumed that any sample which coincided with a hotspot would detect the hotspot without error. However, for many sampling methodologies, there is a chance that the hotspot will not be detected even though it has been sampled directly--a false negative. We present a mathematical solution and a numerical algorithm which account for false negatives when calculating the probability of detecting hotspots that are circular in shape.

Research Organization:
Pacific Northwest National Lab. (PNNL), Richland, WA (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE
DOE Contract Number:
AC05-76RL01830
OSTI ID:
946674
Report Number(s):
PNNL-16812; HU1003000; TRN: US200903%%921
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English