  Stochastic sampling methods are arguably the most direct and least intrusive
means of incorporating parametric uncertainty into numerical simulations of
partial differential equations with random inputs. However, to achieve an
overall error that is within a desired tolerance, a large number of sample
simulations may be required (to control the sampling error), each of which may
need to be run at high levels of spatial fidelity (to control the spatial
error). Multilevel sampling methods aim to achieve the same accuracy as
traditional sampling methods, but at a reduced computational cost, through the
use of a hierarchy of spatial discretization models. Multilevel algorithms
coordinate the number of samples needed at each discretization level by
minimizing the computational cost, subject to a given error tolerance. They can
be applied to a variety of sampling schemes, exploit nesting when available,
can be implemented in parallel and can be used to inform adaptive spatial
refinement strategies. We extend the multilevel sampling algorithm to sparse
grid stochastic collocation methods, discuss its numerical implementation and
demonstrate its efficiency both theoretically and by means of numerical
examples.
