Flood Risk Areas in Wales, Cycle 2 Assessment from 2018

Welsh communities identified as having the most significant flood risks from all sources in December 2018. The data was produced by the Government Digital Service for the second Preliminary Flood Risk Assessment under the Flood Risk Regulations 2009. The identification threshold was set by Welsh Government with input from Natural Resources Wales and local authorities.

Use Cases

• Prioritize flood defense investments based on identified high-risk communities.
• Model regional environmental hazards using the official flood risk area boundaries.
• Inform land-use planning and development regulations based on flood risk zones.
• Assess community vulnerability to flooding across multiple risk sources.

Strengths

• Data is derived from an official statutory assessment under the Flood Risk Regulations 2009.
• Risk identification involved multiple authoritative bodies: Welsh Government, Natural Resources Wales, and local authorities.
• Represents a defined update cycle, replacing the previous Cycle 1 assessment.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Last update date is unknown; the data reflects the December 2018 assessment and may not include recent changes.
• Row count and file formats are unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.

Provenance

Source

Government Digital Service

Collection Method

Identified for the second Preliminary Flood Risk Assessment under statutory regulations.

Time Range

Assessment dated December 2018.

Freshness

Data reflects a snapshot from December 2018; update frequency is unknown.

Geography

Wales, United Kingdom.