Method

The industrial land database provides an assessment of the development status of industrially zoned land as either occupied or vacant based on a visual assessment of aerial photography. Each calendar year is measured using aerial photography taken at the end of that calendar year or early the next year. Occupied land includes land occupied by buildings, container parks, informal carparking, quarries, agricultural uses and hardstand storage areas. Unused land is assessed as vacant. The assessment provides a conservative estimate of the amount of vacant land across metropolitan Melbourne.
There are three steps to produce this data.

1. Identify areas that are zoned for industrial purposes from the planning scheme. This provides the areas in metropolitan Melbourne that are or can be used for industrial purposes.

2. Use the industrial planning scheme zones to identify the cadastral base parcels that are zoned industrial. This provides the individual properties that are zoned for industrial purposes.

3. Make an assessment from geo-rectified digital aerial photography of the status of the land as either occupied or vacant.

The data has been collected annually from 2004 to 2021 to produce a time series extending over 16 years. The data is collected on a calendar year basis.