River Flood Maps: UK Hazard Extents and Depths with Climate Projections

Three probability levels of river flood hazard maps are available, including a 1000-year return period and a 2080s climate change scenario based on UKCP09 high emissions predictions. The maps show flood extent, depth, and velocity where appropriate, produced by the Government Digital Service. The high probability event reflects observed flooding from the last few decades.

Use Cases

• Modeling flood risk for infrastructure planning based on the provided flood extent and depth layers.
• Assessing long-term climate change impacts on floodplains using the 2080s high emissions scenario.
• Prioritizing flood defense investments by comparing high (10-year), medium (200-year), and low (1000-year) probability events.
• Creating regional hazard maps for policy consistency, as the return periods align with Scottish Planning Policy.

Strengths

• Includes a specific future climate scenario defined by UKCP09 2080 high emissions 95%ile predictions.
• Covers three distinct flood probability levels with defined return periods (10, 200, and 1000 years).
• Maps contain multiple hazard dimensions: extent, depth, and velocity where appropriate.

Limitations

• Row count and dataset size are unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.
• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Last update date is unknown; freshness unverified.

Provenance

Source

Government Digital Service

Collection Method

Modeling and projection based on UK Climate Projections 2009 (UKCP09).

Time Range

Includes a future scenario for the 2080s.

Freshness

Last updated: unknown

Geography

Likely covers the United Kingdom, based on the use of UKCP09 and Scottish Planning Policy.