Purpose and Pedantry

Our built environment is the sum of all the stuff that human beings have built and maintained. We all use it every day. It is how we move around, how we feed and shelter ourselves. We use it to make our lives both more rewarding and comfortable. We depend upon it every day and suffer when it fails. As data emerged as a phenomenon, then as a noun, and ultimately a profession, it changed large parts of our lived experience, but left our experience of the built environment untouched. This book seeks to describe if and how we can use data to help make the built environment work better for society. This chapter covers the unique challenges and opportunities presented to data professionals working in the built environment sector. It sets out the structure, purpose, and philosophy of the book, and begins to establish what words like data, information, knowledge, insight, and wisdom mean in the context of the built environment. Your authors are both built environment and data fanatics. We have been lucky enough to work for some of the largest physical asset owners in the UK (and beyond). In doing so we have witnessed the unique challenges and rewards that come from trying to apply data to the benefit of the built environment. We have also drawn upon our extensive networks of subject matter experts across the sector to inform and critique our thinking. We want readers to finish this chapter with a useful overview of the main considerations involved in designing, communicating, and implementing data strategies and solutions in the built environment sector. These considerations include the economic, human, and technological dimensions. During this chapter, we also consider the distinct types of data that built environment data roles must cover, and the different perspectives that readers might bring to this material.