South Down Network Contribution: High Surface Water Flow Areas

Network contribution area scores identify zones with high potential for surface water flow into river networks in Northern Ireland. The scores were calculated within SAGA GIS using the SciMAP application, based on inputs from the CEH Land Cover 2007 map, Met Office average rainfall data, and a 5-meter Digital Terrain Model. The 'High contribution' category is defined as areas scoring above one standard deviation from the mean.

Use Cases

• Identifying high-risk areas for surface runoff and potential flooding based on land cover, rainfall, and topography.
• Prioritizing locations for natural flood management interventions within a catchment.
• Visualizing hydrological connectivity for environmental impact assessments in web maps or dashboards.
• Integrating modeled contribution scores with other spatial datasets for catchment-scale analysis.

Strengths

• Derived from established, authoritative input sources: CEH Land Cover 2007, Met Office rainfall, and a 5m DTM.
• Methodology is explicitly described, using the SciMAP application within SAGA GIS with a defined statistical threshold (+1 SD).
• Available under the permissive Open Government Licence (OGL-UK-3.0), facilitating reuse.

Limitations

• Core input land cover data is from 2007, which may not reflect current land use and limits temporal relevance.
• Specific column names, row counts, and file sizes are not provided in any source, hindering technical assessment.
• Metadata for most platform entries is incomplete, with null values for author, size, and most update dates.

Provenance

Source

Government Digital Service (UK), derived via SciMAP/SAGA GIS analysis.

Collection Method

Geospatial modeling within SAGA GIS, combining land cover, rainfall, and topographic data.

Time Range

Analysis is anchored to the CEH Land Cover 2007 dataset.

Freshness

2026-04-15 14:21:51.673505

Geography

Northern Ireland, specifically the South Down area, United Kingdom.