Flood Map for Planning - Flood Zones for England

Flood Zones data shows land at present-day risk of flooding from rivers and the sea, ignoring defences, for England. The dataset defines three zones based on annual probability of flooding and is used by Local Planning Authorities to determine consultation requirements and the need for Flood Risk Assessments. It is a composite dataset from the Environment Agency, last updated in May 2026.

Use Cases

• Assess land suitability for development based on flood zone classification.
• Determine if a planning application requires consultation with the Environment Agency.
• Identify areas where a Flood Risk Assessment (FRA) is mandated for new development.
• Apply the sequential test for planning decisions using flood risk data.

Strengths

• Defines flood zones with specific annual probability thresholds (e.g., 0.1%, 1%).
• Integrates national and local modelled data with information from past floods.
• Explicitly states its intended use for land area indication and planning purposes.

Limitations

• Description metadata is limited; actual data quality requires manual inspection after download.
• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Not suitable for assessing flood risk to individual properties, as stated in the description.

Provenance

Source

Environment Agency

Collection Method

Composite dataset including national and local modelled data and past flood information.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-05-29 14:32:18.141827

Geography

England