Historic Flood Map of England Showing Maximum Recorded Extents

The Historic Flood Map is a GIS layer showing the maximum extent of individual Recorded Flood Outlines from river, sea, and groundwater sources in England. The majority of records began in 1946 when predecessor bodies to the Environment Agency started collecting detailed information, though limited details exist prior to this date. It is produced by the Environment Agency and was last updated in May 2026.

Use Cases

• Assess property-level flood risk based on historical flood extents.
• Model changes in flood patterns over time based on records dating from 1946.
• Validate hydrological models using recorded flood outlines that account for defenses and infrastructure.
• Inform land-use planning decisions by identifying areas with a documented history of flooding.

Strengths

• Records flood extents from multiple sources (river, sea, groundwater) meeting defined criteria.
• Majority of records span from 1946 to the present, providing a multi-decade perspective.
• Considers the influence of defenses, structures, and infrastructure existing at the time of flooding.

Limitations

• Excludes flooding from surface water, except where the source is indistinguishable but fluvial is dominant.
• An area not on the map does not mean it has never flooded, only that no qualifying record exists.
• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.

Provenance

Source

Environment Agency

Collection Method

Collected by predecessor bodies to the Environment Agency and the Agency itself.

Time Range

Records primarily from 1946 onwards, with limited details prior.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-05-29 14:33:08.878101; freshness should be verified.

Geography

England