Two stage adaptive cluster sampling based on ordered statistics

Abstract

The estimation problem on sparsely distributed populations using adaptive cluster sampling (ACS) is discussed. In the first phase of ACS, two stage sampling is used in which primary and secondary sampling units are selected using simple random sampling without replacement. The idea of Thompson (1996) is introduced in order to choose an appropriate fixed value of pre-specified condition, which might represent the number of rare species, before conducting the survey by the use of order statistics. Different estimators of the population mean under the two possible schemes (open and closed boundaries of primary sampling units) are studied and the Rao-Blackwell theorem for improving these estimators is also used. Numerical illustrations, one on real life data and the other based on simulation study, are discussed for these two schemes. This design may be quite useful in environmental, forestry and other areas of research dealing with rare, endangered or threatened species.