South Down Network Contribution: Hydrological Risk Areas

Network contribution area scores identify zones with high potential for surface water flow into river networks in Northern Ireland. The data is derived from a 2007 land cover map, average rainfall, and a 5-meter digital terrain model, processed using the SciMAP application in SAGA GIS. 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.
• Visualizing hydrological connectivity for web maps and environmental dashboards.
• Informing land-use planning and mitigation strategies in the South Down region.
• Supporting catchment-scale hydrological modeling and analysis.

Strengths

• Derived from authoritative input sources: CEH Land Cover 2007, Met Office rainfall, and a 5m DTM.
• Cross-platform presence on EU and UK open data portals indicates official recognition and reuse potential.
• Available under the permissive Open Government Licence (OGL-UK-3.0).

Limitations

• Core input data (land cover) is from 2007, which may not reflect current conditions.
• Column names and specific data schema are not provided in any source description.
• The exact spatial resolution and vector/raster format are unspecified.

Provenance

Source

Government Digital Service (UK), outputs from SciMAP application in SAGA GIS.

Collection Method

Geospatial analysis combining land cover, rainfall, and topographic data.

Time Range

2007 (for primary land cover input).

Freshness

2026-07-08 13:32:52.530773

Geography

South Down, Northern Ireland, United Kingdom.