Abstract

Opportunities for utilising pre-existing data to conduct secondary research in the built environment continue to increase and so do the sources of secondary data. In this chapter, the distinction between secondary data and primary data has been discussed, whilst acknowledging that this distinction can be blurred and confusing sometimes. The sources of secondary data that are applicable to various built environment disciplines also have been identified and discussed. These include academic databases, government databases, inter-governmental databases, organisational databases, data from social media, and legal databases. The opportunities for utilising data from these various sources are interrogated before reflecting on some of the considerations that need to be exercised to ensure that the pre-existing data meets the quality requirements for use in secondary research.