AfA480: 2004 Fluvial Flood Depth Change Under Climate Change

A 2004 Environment Agency dataset models the difference in flood depth caused by a 20% increase in peak river flows due to climate change. It covers a 100x100 km grid square (SU) in England at a 5x5 meter resolution, generated using the JFlow hydrodynamic model. The data is a by-product of a generalised modeling project to define flood zones for spatial planning where detailed local models were unavailable.

Use Cases

• Assessing potential changes in flood zone extents for spatial planning based on climate-adjusted flood depths.
• Comparing baseline and climate-adjusted flood scenarios for regional environmental impact studies.
• Informing high-level strategic flood risk assessments where detailed local models are not available.

Strengths

• Provides a high-resolution (5x5m grid) spatial comparison of flood depths under two scenarios.
• Covers a specific, large (100x100km) geographic area with modeled data for a defined climate change parameter (20% peak flow increase).
• Produced by a national environmental authority (Environment Agency) using a named hydrodynamic model (JFlow).

Limitations

• The dataset is outdated (created in 2004) and climate change allowances have since changed, limiting its current applicability.
• Sources conflict on the modeled flood probability, describing both 0.1% (1 in 1000) and 1% (1 in 100) annual chance events.
• Metadata is incomplete, with no information on row count, file size, specific license, or detailed column structure.

Provenance

Source

Environment Agency (UK)

Collection Method

Generated as a by-product of the 2004 generalised modelling project using the JFlow two-dimensional hydrodynamic model.

Time Range

2004

Freshness

Last metadata update recorded as 2026-07-06, but the underlying data is from 2004 and has not been updated.

Geography

Covers the Ordnance Survey National Grid 100x100 km reference square SU in England.