Lesson 1, Topic 1
In Progress
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What are best practices for primary and secondary data collection?
Data collection is an integral part of developing and updating a GHG inventory. This includes gathering existing data, generating new data, and adapting data for inventory use.
Here are some principles of data collection that underpin good practice:
- It is good practice to start data collection activities with an initial screening of available data sources.
- This will be an iterative process to improve the quality of data used and should be driven by two primary considerations:
Data should be from reliable and robust sources.
Data should be time- and geographically specific to the inventory boundary, and technology-specific to the activity being measured.
- A country’s national GHG inventory report
- National and local census results
- National and international reports/statistics
- Ministries and government departments at the local and national level, for sector-specific information e.g. energy, transport, agriculture, etc
- National utility and regulatory bodies, for sector-specific information e.g. electricity and energy
- Industry and business surveys – for information about fuel consumption, electricity use, waste management, direct emissions (IPPU)
- Local associations or authorities, for sector-specific information e.g, waste management authority, transport associations
- Sector experts/stakeholder organisations
- Household surveys – for information about household fuel consumption, waste management, etc
- Universities and research institutes’ papers
- Statistics agencies
- Scientific and technical articles in environmental books, journals and reports,
- In general, it is preferable to use local and national data over international data, and data from publicly-available, peer-reviewed and reputable sources, often available through government publications.
- Surveys may be the best option for most emission sources, given the tailored data needs of city-wide GHG inventories, although they can be relatively expensive and time-consuming without proper guidance.
- Data collected in this manner would be referred to as primary data, while other collected data is secondary data.
