ABSTRACT
Spatial sampling refers to the sampling of georeferenced or spatially labeled phenomena. In the spatial context, interest is usually in the prediction of (some function of) the study variable at multiple unsampled sites, and it is in this sense that the prediction problem is multivariate. Given some predictand together with its predictor, a best sampling plan or network refers to the choice of locations at which to sample the phenomenon in order to achieve optimality according to a given criterion (e.g., minimize average mean squared prediction error, where the average is taken over multiple prediction locations). In practice, optimal sampling plans may be extremely
difficult to achieve, but good, although suboptimal, sampling plans may be relatively easy to obtain and these designs, at least, should be sought.
