Data Collection
- Data which records quantities is quantitative data
- Examples of quantitative data are:
- Numerical data collected in questionnaires
- Traffic counts
- Environmental quality surveys
- River data - velocity, discharge
- Weather data
- Data which records descriptive information is qualitative data
- Examples of qualitative data:
- Field sketches and photographs
- Non-numeric questionnaire data
- Interview answers
Questionnaires and interviews
- When collecting data via questionnaires or interviews a number of questioning types can be used:
- Closed questions where answers are limited to single words, numbers or a list of options
- Statements which use a scale to gauge people's views. For example, strongly agree/agree
- Open questions where the respondent can give any answer
- Questionnaires can be used to gather a large sample of data
- Interviews are more in-depth and tend to be used to gather a smaller data sample
Environmental quality surveys
- These are used to collect data about the environmental quality of different sites
- They use the judgement of the person conducting the survey to assess environmental quality against a range of indicators
- Using a sliding scale (1 -5) or bipolar scale (-3 to 3)
- Usually, the lower the score the more negative the assessment of the environmental quality
- They are subjective because they are based on the opinion of the person completing them
- This can be reduced by:
- Completing in small groups to reach a consensus regarding the score
- Using the mode of EQS completed by a number of students
- They produce quantitative data
Strengths and Limitations of Quantitative and Qualitative Data
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Quantitative Data |
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Qualitative Data |
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