172 Chapter 12 • The Role of Environmental Monitoring in Pollution Science

TABLE 12.1 Statistical symbols and their definitions.

TERM SYMBOL DEFINITION

x1  x2  …  xn
Sample mean or estimated mean x苶   n Mean estimated from the n values x1, x2, ..., xn. (Specific
cases are identified by xbar, ybar, ybar.)
Mean  Population or true mean. Limiting value of xbar as n
becomes large or if all possible values of xi are included.
n
∑ 冢xi  苶x冣2
i1
Sample variance s2 =  Estimate of variance based on n values given by x1, x2, ...,
n1
xn. (If all possible values of n are included, then use n
in place of n  1 for denominator).
Variance 2 True variance for the population.
Standard deviation s,  Defined for s2 and 2 above. (Specific cases are identified
by subscripts, such as sx and sy).
 s
Coefficient of variation CV   or  A relative standard deviation. Can also be expressed as a
 x苶
percentage.
n
∑ (Xi  苶X)(Yi  Y苶)
i1 b sX
Correlation coefficient r     Linear relationship between two variables measured n
(n  1)sXsY sY
times. The data pairs are (X1, Y1), (X2, Y2), ... (Xn, Yn).
Range of r is 1 to 1.
Coefficient of determination r2 Square of r (above) for linear correlation. Range is 0 to 1.
n
∑ (Xi  X苶)(Yi  Y苶)
i1
Slope b    Slope for linear regression for n data pairs.
(n  1)sX2
Intercept aY苶  bX苶 Y-intercept for linear regression for n data pairs.
Predicted value Y  a  bX Predicted value of dependent variable Y.
Modified from Pollution Science, 1996 Academic Press, San Diego, CA.

It is also important to report environmental data using

commonly accepted units, preferably conforming to the SI
(International System of Units), used worldwide. Unfortu-
nately, in the U.S., environmental scientists and engineers
often must convert units across two or more systems, a pro-
cess that often leads to errors in data reporting.

12.3 STATISTICS AND GEOSTATISTICS

Statistical methods are necessary in pollution science be-

cause it is impossible to characterize all properties of an en-
vironment everywhere all of the time. Statistics are used to
select samples from a population in an unbiased manner.
They also help to interpret the data with the appropriate de-
gree of confidence. Descriptive statistics are very useful in
environmental science, because they provide a summary of
the properties or characteristics of an environment. Descrip-
tive statistics include sample means, standard deviations,
and coefficients of variation (Table 12.1).
Data samples should be collected randomly or system-
atically from an environment. Biased sampling (usually Figure 12.1 Frequency distribution f(x) for a normal distribu-
based on convenience) will produce biased data. The range of tion. The dashed lines show the center and  standard devia-
values that can be expected from sampling an environment tion () from the mean. (From Warrick et al., 1996). Adapted from
varies randomly, but values have a likelihood of occurrence Environmental Monitoring and Characterization © 2004, Elsevier Academic
that is defined by a probability distribution (Figure 12.1). Press, San Diego, CA.