Development Advice Maps: Flood Risk Zones for Land-Use Planning in Wales

The Development Advice Map (DAM) shows areas at risk of flooding from rivers and the sea for land-use planning in Wales. It was produced by Natural Resources Wales to support Planning Policy Wales and Technical Advice Note 15, with Zone C last updated in January 2020 and Zone B revised in 2017. This dataset is being replaced by the Flood Map for Planning published in September 2021.

Use Cases

• Identify development sites requiring detailed flood risk assessment based on the policy trigger framework.
• Guide new development away from high-risk areas based on the 1000-year extreme flood outline (Zone C).
• Analyze historical flood patterns for planning using areas known to have flooded in the past (Zone B).
• Compare legacy flood risk data with newer climate-adjusted models like the Flood Map for Planning.

Strengths

• Provides a policy-aligned framework for land-use planning, directly supporting Planning Policy Wales and TAN15.
• Includes distinct risk zones: Zone B for historical floods and Zone C for extreme 1000-year flood outlines.
• Explicitly documents the update timeline, with Zone C updated in January 2020.

Limitations

• Row count and column-level documentation are absent; data structure must be inferred after download.
• The dataset is stated to be replaced in June 2023, indicating it is a legacy resource.
• Web services and the map browser for this dataset are currently unavailable due to technical issues.

Provenance

Source

Natural Resources Wales (NRW)

Collection Method

Likely generated from hydrological modeling and historical flood records for policy guidance.

Time Range

Zone B data originally from 2004, revised 2017; Zone C updated January 2020.

Freshness

Zone C was last updated in January 2020, with no further updates planned.

Geography

Wales, United Kingdom