Roe Network Contribution: High Surface Water Connectivity Areas in Northern Ireland

Northern Ireland's Roe Network Contribution dataset identifies areas with high potential for contributing surface water flow to river networks. The data consists of scores derived from a 2007 land cover map, average rainfall data, and a 5-meter digital terrain model, processed within the SciMAP application in SAGA GIS. The 'High contribution' category is defined statistically as areas scoring above one standard deviation from the mean.

Use Cases

• Flood risk modeling based on high network contribution scores and terrain data.
• Catchment management planning using derived surface water connectivity boundaries.
• Environmental dashboard visualization of hydrological contribution areas.
• Land use impact assessment on water networks using integrated land cover and rainfall inputs.

Strengths

• Derived from specific, named foundational datasets: CEH Land Cover 2007, Met Office average rainfall, and a 5-meter DTM.
• Analysis method is explicitly described: scores processed in SciMAP/SAGA GIS with a +1 standard deviation threshold.
• Available under the permissive OGL-UK-3.0 license, facilitating reuse.
• Present on multiple open data platforms (uk_data, eu_open_data), indicating established provenance.

Limitations

• Core input data (land cover, rainfall) is from 2007, which may not reflect current conditions.
• No column names or schema are provided, limiting understanding of the data's internal structure.
• Key metadata such as dataset size, row count, and specific author are consistently missing across all sources.

Provenance

Source

OpenDataNI

Collection Method

Scores exported from SciMAP application outputs within SAGA GIS, based on inputs from CEH Land Cover 2007, Met Office average rainfall, and a 5-meter DTM.

Time Range

2007 (based on the CEH Land Cover input).

Freshness

Last updated date provided is 2026-07-08, but this appears to be a future date and may be a platform artifact; the underlying source data is from 2007.

Geography

Northern Ireland, United Kingdom.