The Shrink Swell dataset from the British Geological Survey (BGS) provides a generalized, hexagonal grid view of ground movement susceptibility across Great Britain. It classifies areas into Low (1), Moderate (2), or Significant (3) risk ratings based on geological deposits and clay mineral behavior. The dataset, version 7, was last updated on 2026-04 09.
Use Cases
- Regional hazard zoning for insurance and property development based on the generalized susceptibility ratings.
- Informing sustainable land management solutions based on the identified areas most at risk from shrink-swell behavior.
- Supporting geotechnical investigations by indicating potential causes of subsidence mentioned in the supporting GeoSure reports.
Strengths
- Provides complete national coverage for Great Britain.
- Offers a user-friendly hexagonal grid format with a 64.95km² coverage area per cell.
- Ratings are based on BGS Digital Map data and expert knowledge of geological formations.
Limitations
- Generalization to a 5km hexagonal grid may lead to under or overestimation of the actual hazard extent.
- Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
- Row count and specific file formats are unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.
Provenance
- Source
- British Geological Survey (BGS)
- Collection Method
- Based on the BGS Digital Map (DiGMapGB-50) and expert knowledge, with detailed geotechnical and mineralogical investigations.
- Time Range
- null
- Freshness
- Last updated 2026-04-09 08:35:08.530806; freshness should be verified.
- Geography
- Great Britain