UK Flood Risk Extents for Rivers and Sea Under Climate Change

UK land at risk of flooding from rivers and sea under a 3.3% annual exceedance probability, incorporating climate change projections. The dataset models defended flood risk for the 2080s epoch (2070-2125) using UKCP18 RCP 8.5 scenarios. It is produced by the Environment Agency and was last updated in May 2026.

Use Cases

• Model regional flood exposure based on defended 3.3% AEP risk extents.
• Assess long-term climate change impacts on flood risk using the 2080s epoch projections.
• Compare central and upper-end climate allowances for river and sea level rise scenarios.
• Inform land-use planning decisions based on aggregated flood risk areas.

Strengths

• Incorporates specific climate change allowances from the UKCP18 RCP 8.5 projections.
• Clearly defines the defended scenario for a 3.3% Annual Exceedance Probability (1 in 30 years).
• Specifies temporal coverage for the 2080s epoch (2070-2125).
• Explicitly states assumptions about flood defense operation and excludes asset failure scenarios.

Limitations

• Description metadata is limited; actual data quality requires manual inspection after download.
• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• The dataset is not suitable for assessing risk to individual properties, as stated in the description.

Provenance

Source

Environment Agency

Collection Method

Likely derived from hydrological modeling and flood defense data.

Time Range

Future projections for the 2080s epoch (2070-2125).

Freshness

Last updated 2026-05-29 14:39:17.121318; freshness should be verified.

Geography

United Kingdom