Longitudinal urban form dataset of Midtown Manhattan: Measuring urban form evolution via quantitative descriptions of plots, buildings and streets from 1890 to the present

This dataset contains data described and used in the research article "The impact of urban form on physical change: A quantitative and diachronic analysis of urban form evolution in Midtown Manhattan". 

The longitudinal dataset contains urban form data on nearly 17,000 individual plots (parcels) in Midtown Manhattan, documented through four subsequent time frames: 1890, 1920, 1956 and 2021. The data was compiled from historical cartographic resources and open-access geospatial datasets listed in the ReadMe file. 

The dataset includes an array of quantitative descriptions of plots, buildings and streets central to the field of urban morphology, and the binary information of physical change (1: change, 0: no change) identified via diachronic comparison of each time frame at the scale of plots.

Acknowledgements

The dataset presented in this repository has been generated as part of a PhD research conducted at the University of Melbourne, Faculty of Architecture, Building and Planning and funded by the University of Melbourne - Melbourne Research Scholarship: 

Tümtürk, O. (2024). A data-driven investigation on urban form evolution: Methodological and empirical support for unravelling the relation between urban form and spatial dynamics. Unpublished PhD Thesis. The University of Melbourne, Australia.