UK floodplains are covered by detailed Digital Elevation Models (DEMs) generated from Airborne LiDAR, owned by the Environment Agency and provided to the British Geological Survey for research. The data is produced from aircraft flying at 800 meters, capturing ground measurements at 2-meter intervals to create high-resolution terrain maps for flood risk assessment.
Use Cases
- Generate colour coded elevation models from LiDAR point data to visualize terrain height variations.
- Assess coastal erosion and geomorphology by analyzing changes in land topography over time.
- Produce height contour plots for hydrological modeling and flood plain monitoring.
- Create three-dimensional perspective views of surveyed areas for environmental planning.
Strengths
- Data provides highly resolved terrain models with individual ground measurements captured at 2-meter intervals.
- Generated from Airborne LiDAR, an established technique for cost-effective and accurate terrain mapping.
- Owned by the authoritative Environment Agency, ensuring a defined use case for flood defense monitoring.
Limitations
- Geographic coverage is very limited, confined mostly to UK floodplains and not nationwide.
- Data is provided for research use only, which may restrict commercial or operational applications.
Provenance
- Source
- Environment Agency, provided to British Geological Survey (BGS).
- Collection Method
- Airborne LiDAR mapping using a laser from aircraft flying at about 800 meters altitude, with a 600-meter swathe width.
- Time Range
- null
- Freshness
- null
- Geography
- United Kingdom, specifically floodplain areas.