Assessing the risk costs in delineating soil nickel contamination using sequential Gaussian simulation and transfer functions

► Simulated realizations can represent spatial heterogeneity more realistically than kriging optimal interpolation. ► Non‐remediation and remediation risk costs were calculated by combining sequential Gaussian simulation and transfer functions. ► Land use type information was taken into account in transfer functions for risk cost estimation. ► The spatial uncertainties of risk costs were assessed by uncertainty propagation. ► Remediation areas were declared by minimizing the expected risk costs.