Strangford Network Contribution: High Surface Water Flow Areas in Northern Ireland

Network contribution area scores identify land areas contributing significantly to surface water flow into river networks. This geospatial layer was generated using the SciMAP application within SAGA GIS, 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 boundary is defined statistically as areas scoring above +1 standard deviation from the mean.

Use Cases

• Identifying high-priority areas for natural flood management interventions based on calculated contribution scores.
• Visualizing hydrological connectivity for environmental dashboards and web maps, as described in the platform descriptions.
• Informing land-use planning decisions by analyzing the relationship between land cover (CEH 2007) and surface water contribution.
• Assessing potential impacts of rainfall patterns (Met Office data) on surface flow generation within a catchment.

Strengths

• Derived from established, authoritative input datasets: CEH Land Cover 2007, Met Office rainfall, and a 5m DTM.
• Cross-platform presence on both 'eu_open_data' and 'uk_data' platforms signals recognized utility and official status.
• Methodology is explicitly described, using the SciMAP application and a clear statistical threshold (+1 standard deviation).

Limitations

• Critical metadata is missing: no column names, row counts, or file sizes are provided, hindering detailed assessment.
• The land cover input data (CEH 2007) is potentially outdated for contemporary analysis.
• One source lists a last updated date of '2026-04-15', which is a future date and suggests a metadata error or placeholder.

Provenance

Source

Government Digital Service (as listed on one 'eu_open_data' source).

Collection Method

Exported from SciMAP application outputs within SAGA GIS, using a model based on land cover, rainfall, and terrain data.

Time Range

Analysis is anchored to the CEH Land Cover 2007 dataset.

Freshness

2026-04-15 14:21:52.528741 (Note: This is a future date and may be a metadata error.)

Geography

Strangford area, Northern Ireland, United Kingdom.