Advantages and Disadvantages of Primary and Secondary Data Collection

Primary data:

• Any data that is personally collected by you. Primary data may include traffic counts, pedestrian counts, environmental indexes, questionnaires or land use surveys.

Secondary data:

• Any data that has been collected by someone else. Secondary data collection may be found in books, on the internet, in academic journals, etc.

Census:

• A survey carried out by nearly all countries every 10 years. It is a very detailed survey that is compulsory for everyone to fill in.

Advantages of Primary Data:

• It is up to date (current).
• You know how the data has been collected.
• Includes data relevant to coursework.
• Only covers your study area.
• Collected in the format that you want.

Advantages of Secondary Data:

• Can study temporal changes.
• It can be quicker, especially if the data is on the internet.
• You can study a larger area.
• May include data that you cannot obtain personally.

Disadvantages of Primary Data:

• Data may include some personal bias.
• Data collection can be time-consuming.
• Can be expensive to collect data.
• It is hard to study temporal changes.
• Some data might be unavailable or too dangerous to collect.
• Only possible to cover a small area.

Disadvantages of Secondary Data:

• It is out of date.
• More information than you need.
• Information may include a larger area than your study area.
• May not know how data was collected and who collected it.
• Data might be in the wrong format.

Quantitative data:

• Any data that involves figures. Is very easy to present and analyze; however, it can be very general and excludes some data.

Qualitative data:

• This is written data or photographs. Tends to be individual/personal and can be hard to present and analyze. Often comes as results of interviews with open questions.

Sampling:

• A section or part of the entire study area/population, representing the whole. Necessary to only investigate a sample due to time and money limitations.

Measurement Tools:

• Calliper: Used to measure width, depth, or length of small objects like load.
• Clinometer: Used for measuring slope angle. Used together with ranging poles.
• Pebbleometer: A very basic device for measuring the size and shape of material found on a beach or in a river.

River Features:

• Upper course: Waterfalls, rapids, V-shaped valley.
• Lower course: Meanders, ox-bow lake, deltas, levees, floodplains.