A bibliographical review of Gy sampling theory for particulate materials was conducted to provide readers with useful means to reduce errors in soil contamination investigation. According to the Gy theory, the errors caused by the heterogeneous nature of soil include; the fundamental error (FE) caused by physical and chemical constitutional heterogeneity, the grouping and segregation error (GE) aroused from gravitational force, long-range heterogeneous fluctuation error ($CE_2$), the periodic heterogeneity fluctuation error ($CE_3$), and the materialization error (ME) generated during physical process of sample treatment. However, the accurate estimation of $CE_2$ and $CE_3$ cannot be estimated easily and only increasing sampling locations can reduce the magnitude of the errors. In addition, incremental sampling is the only method to reduce GE while grab sampling should be avoided as it introduces uncertainty and errors to the sampling process. Correct preparation and operation of sampling tools are important factors in reducing the incremental delimitation error (DE) and extraction error (EE) which are resulted from physical processes in the sampling. Therefore, Gy sampling theory can be used efficiently in planning a strategy for soil investigations of non-volatile and non-reactive samples.

Keywords: Error;Heterogeneity;Incremental sampling;Particulate materials;Sampling theory;Segregation;