Optimal sampling strategy for the estimation of dispersion parameters in soil columns

In groundwater modeling problems, parameter estimation constitutes one of the main uncertain items that must be taken into account, as inverse solution techniques are blocked by several inherent difficulties. The aim of this work is to build and test a decision model able to locate the position of a fixed number of sample points in order to obtain the "optimal" parameters estimation minimizing the parameters uncertainty and the overall cost of the experimental campaign. This decision model is applied to the estimation of the longitudinal and transversal dispersivity coefficients in polluted soils