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  3. Historic Flood Map

Historic Flood Map

Summary

The Historic Flood Map is a GIS layer showing the maximum extent of individual Recorded Flood Outlines from river, the sea and groundwater springs that meet a set criteria. It shows areas of land that have previously been subject to flooding in England. This excludes flooding from surface water, except in areas where it is impossible to determine whether the source is fluvial or surface water but the dominant source is fluvial. The majority of records began in 1946 when predecessor bodies to the Environment Agency started collecting detailed information about flooding incidents, although we hold limited details about flooding incidents prior to this date. If an area is not covered by the Historic Flood Map it does not mean that the area has never flooded, only that we do not currently have records of flooding in this area that meet the criteria for inclusion. It is also possible that the pattern of flooding in this area has changed and that this area would now flood or not flood under different circumstances. Outlines that don’t meet this criteria are stored in the Recorded Flood Outlines dataset. The Historic Flood Map takes into account the presence of defences, structures, and other infrastructure where they existed at the time of flooding. It will include flood extents that may have been affected by overtopping, breaches or blockages. Flooding is shown to the land and does not necessarily indicate that properties were flooded internally.

Use limitation statement

There are no public access constraints to this data. Use of this data is subject to the licence identified.

Attribution statement

© Environment Agency copyright and/or database right 2023. All rights reserved

Technical information

Update frequency

quarterly

Lineage

Flood outlines are digitised in ArcGIS from a number of sources including surveyed flood events

Spatial information

Geographic extent

  • Latitude from: 49.943 to 55.816
  • Longitude from: -6.236 to 2.072
Metadata information

Language

English

Metadata identifier

889885c0-d465-11e4-9507-f0def148f590


Published by

Environment Agency

Contact publisher

Defra Data Services Forum

Dataset reference dates

Creation date

01 January 2004

Revision date

02 May 2024

Publication date

N/A

Period

  • From: 01 January 1946

Search

Data and Supporting Information
Data services and download by area of interestLinkAction
Download data by area of interestN/AOpen link
Historic Flood Map - WMSCopy linkPreview
Historic Flood Map - WFSCopy linkN/A
OGC API - Features serviceCopy linkOpen link
Full downloads and supporting documentationFormatAction
Data Version.txtTXTDownload
Guidance_Historic Flood Map_v6.pdfPDFDownload
HISTORIC_FLOOD_MAP.lyrLYRDownload