UK Flood Map for Planning: Surface Water Depths and Climate Change Scenarios

Surface water flood risk data for the UK, showing land at risk to defined depth bands for three annual exceedance probabilities (0.1%, 1%, 3.3%). Produced by the Environment Agency, this dataset includes climate change scenarios for the 2070s epoch (2061-2125) based on UKCP18 RCP 8.5 projections. The data is intended for spatial planning and indicates risk to areas of land, not individual properties.

Use Cases

• Assess regional flood hazard for land-use planning based on surface water depth bands.
• Model future flood risk under climate change scenarios based on the UKCP18 RCP 8.5 projections.
• Prioritize flood mitigation investments based on areas mapped to specific annual exceedance probabilities (AEP).
• Inform strategic environmental assessments based on flood risk layers for defined depth thresholds.

Strengths

• Defines flood risk using seven specific depth bands, from 'Up to 150mm' to 'Over 2300mm'.
• Includes three distinct probability scenarios: 0.1% AEP (1 in 1000), 1% AEP (1 in 100), and 3.3% AEP (1 in 30).
• Incorporates future climate change scenarios for the 2070s epoch (2061-2125) based on the latest UKCP18 projections.
• Explicitly states its intended use for spatial planning and limitations regarding individual property risk.

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.
• The dataset is not suitable for assessing flood risk to individual properties, as stated in the description.

Provenance

Source

Environment Agency

Time Range

Includes future projections for the 2070s epoch (2061-2125).

Freshness

Last updated 2026-05-29 14:32:21.124581; freshness should be verified.

Geography

United Kingdom