Wider Catchment Woodland Potential for Natural Flood Management

A 100m gridded dataset estimating locations for effective scrub and tree planting to increase infiltration on slowly permeable soils. Created by the UK Environment Agency's 'Working with Natural Processes' research project (SC150005) as part of a toolbox for operational staff in England. The data is based on the 1:50k BGS geology survey and open constraints data to exclude existing features.

Use Cases

• Identify potential planting sites by analyzing the 'slowly permeable soils' feature derived from BGS 1:50k geology data.
• Screen out unsuitable areas by applying constraints data layers for existing woodland, watercourses, peat, roads, rail, and urban locations.
• Prioritize catchment-scale interventions by mapping the 'Wider Catchment Woodland Potential' layer to target hydrological losses.
• Assess baseline conditions by comparing the potential layer with other project outputs like 'Floodplain Woodland Planting Potential' and 'Riparian Woodland Planting Potential'.

Strengths

• Based on authoritative 1:50,000 scale BGS geology survey data.
• Incorporates multiple open constraints datasets to refine potential areas.
• Part of a suite of 7 related datasets from a defined research project (SC150005).

Limitations

• Data is indicative at a 100m grid resolution, not site-specific.
• Does not consider land ownership or changes to flood risk from planting.
• May not reflect recent building or land use changes after source data creation.

Provenance

Source

UK Environment Agency, from the 'Mapping Potential for Working with Natural Processes' project (SC150005).

Collection Method

Derived from BGS 1:50k superficial and bedrock geology data, processed with open constraints data to erase unsuitable areas.

Freshness

Last platform update was 2026-04-07, though underlying source data is older.

Geography

England