Dataset for "Do Industrial Firms Follow Zoning? Changing Firm Location and the Introduction of Metropolitan Zoning" paper and storymaps.

Data Description:

This dataset supports the storymap titled "Do Industrial Firms Follow Zoning? Changing Firm Location and the Introduction of Metropolitan Zoning", which examines the evolution of zoning and firm location in mid-twentieth century Melbourne, Australia. The study demonstrates the role of land-use zoning in shaping the geographic distribution of manufacturing and industrial activities over time.

The dataset includes shapefiles and map packages used in the creation of the storymap, which were developed through digital archival mapping. These geospatial data files represent historical zoning boundaries, firm locations, and related land-use patterns in Melbourne during the period studied.

To identify firm location, we relied on the historical Sands and McDougall business directories, which were digitised and geocoded by the  Victoria Unearthed project . We used the 1955, 1965 and 1974 directories (the final year of publication).

The research and data are part of the Australian Research Council Discovery Project Remaking Post-industrial Plans: Urban Industrial Zoning Past and Future [DP210103690]. The geospatial analysis is linked to the findings published in the 2023 article Do Industrial Firms Follow Zoning? Changing Firm Location and the Introduction of Metropolitan Zoning in Urban Policy and Research, co-authored by Joe Hurley, Carl Grodach, Declan Martin, and Elizabeth Taylor. The StoryMap was produced by Nícolas Guerra-Tão in collaboration with the authors.

Data Components:

• Historical zoning shapefiles
• Firm location shapefiles
• Map packages illustrating changes in industrial land-use patterns

The dataset is provided to facilitate further research into the interaction between industrial firm locations and zoning policies in Melbourne and may be useful for urban planning scholars, geographers, and policymakers.