The Radon "Noise" and its Geostatistical Implications: Risk Mapping or Mapping at Risk?

Maps of indoor radon levels are frequently generated by averaging measurements on an administrative basis and subsequently classifying radon levels according to various regulatory thresholds. Such classification of “risk areas” certainly facilitates decision-making as local average values are usually not put into question as long as the number of measurements made is considered sufficient. One would still be tempted to further apply geostatistical techniques for producing maps showing local probabilities to exceed a given threshold as the information obtained should be more useful for a cost effective remediation strategy. An apparent obstacle to the use of geostatistics here is the very high level of fluctuations found between measurements made in neighbouring dwellings. It is the purpose of this paper to discuss the use of geostatistics for the mapping of indoor radon levels using a set of around 11 000 measurements made on the ground floors of Austrian dwellings. The further normalisation of the data using Friedmann’s radon potential is further discussed. KEYWORDS : Indoor radon mapping, radon risk map, nugget effect, radon potential

DUBOIS Gregoire;  BOSSEW Peter; 

2006-09-14

University of Liege

JRC34164

https://publications.jrc.ec.europa.eu/repository/handle/JRC34164,