Automatic Mapping in Emergency: A Geostatistical Perspective

In the case of a severe nuclear accident, radionuclides may be released into the atmosphere and contaminate large areas. Essential information for decision making and further modelling are maps that describe the radiological situation. Radiological maps are obtained after a spatial interpolation process that converts local measurements into information continuous in space. Ideally, the mapping process should be fully automatic and provide information in real time. It is the purpose of this paper to discuss results obtained from two statistical exercises that addressed the issue of automating the spatial interpolation step both in routine and emergency situations. The first exercise addressed mainly the current state of the art of mapping deposited radioactivity following an accident in wet conditions and explored the impact of human factors on the results obtained. The second exercise, conceptually similar to the first one, involved real gamma dose rate measurements to address specifically the automation issue. To further address the response of these mapping algorithms in emergency situations, simulated data have also been used to explore the impact of extreme values on the process. It is shown that if results tend to be similar in routine situations, independently of the choice of algorithms, many obstacles still remain before we can rely on fully automatic mapping systems in emergency situations, especially during the early and critical stage of an accident when measurements on the contamination are sparse. Keywords: nuclear accident, decision making, mapping, GIS, monitoring networks, spatial interpolation

DUBOIS Gregoire;  PEBESMA Edzer J.;  BOSSEW Peter; 

2007-07-10

Inderscience Publishers

JRC31073

https://publications.jrc.ec.europa.eu/repository/handle/JRC31073,