9. Detailed data list

Created: 31 October 2024 Updated: 25 March 2025

The Environment Agency has published new national risk information for flooding and coastal erosion. 

Below we list the datasets we have published on the Defra DSP (Data Services Platform). The datasets are also available to view on ‘Check Your Long-Term Flood Risk’, ‘Flood Map for Planning’, and ‘Shoreline Management Plan Explorer’. 

Please also read the summary announcement: ‘Data relating to the Environment Agency’s new national flood and coastal erosion risk information’. 

For detailed information on the new formats and schema of ‘Risk of flooding from rivers and the sea’ and ‘Risk of flooding from surface water’, see the related announcement ‘New formats and schema for RoFRS and RoFSW’. 

Present day 

Flood risk on ‘Check Your Long-Term Flood Risk’ (CYLTFR) in January 2025 

For depths relating to RoFRS and RoFSW, depth bands are provided in separate layers showing the risk of exceeding the following thresholds: 20cm, 30cm, 60cm, 90cm, 120cm. 

The 120cm depth band is not presented on CYLTFR. The 90cm depth band is visible on the CYLTFR technical map but not on the results page.  

Table 1

Flood risk on ‘Flood Map for Planning’ (FMfP) in March 2025 

There are no changes to existing datasets on Flood Map for Planning relating to main rivers, flood defences, and water storage areas. 

Table 2

 Coastal erosion risk on ‘Shoreline Management Plan Explorer’ in January 2025 

The present-day scenario uses the historical erosion rates and extrapolates future projections from them without calculating any additional impacts of climate change and rising sea levels. The year 2020 is taken as the baseline year for the erosion projections.  

Erosion risk zones are shown for two management scenarios: 

• No Future Intervention - if there was no future work to maintain or build coastal defences, therefore allowing them to fail over time and erosion to occur. 

• With Shoreline Management Plans Delivered - if the current intention to manage the coastline is followed.

Table 3

We also show coastal locations at risk of ground instability. These were previously referred to as ‘complex cliffs’ in NCERM. 

Climate change 

We have created information which indicates the possible impacts of climate change on future risk. We have selected the scenarios from our Flood risk assessment: climate change allowances considered most relevant to the expected uses of the data. The climate change allowances are based on the latest UK Climate Projections (UKCP18) from the Met Office, using the Representative Concentration Pathway (RCP) 8.5. 

Allowances are based on percentiles. A percentile describes the proportion of possible scenarios that fall below the chosen scenario. For example, the 95th percentile is the point at which 95% of the possible scenarios fall below it, and 5% fall above it. 

The allowances include several different allowances reflecting the range of possible future climates. They also provide allowances for different periods of time, acknowledging that some users will want to look further into the future than others. The periods of time vary for each source of risk because equivalent datasets for each source are not always available.  

We have chosen the period of time and percentile for each dataset according to its purpose. 

Flood risk on ‘Check Your Long-Term Flood Risk’ (CYLTFR) in January 2025 

The data on CYLTFR are intended as a tool to support individuals, communities and organisations in managing future flood risk. 

We have chosen mid-century time periods and Central/Higher Central allowances to support short- and medium-term decisions: 

• the ‘Central’ allowance (50^th percentile) for the 2050s epoch (2040-2069) for risk of flooding from rivers 

• the ‘Higher Central’ allowance (70^th percentile) for risk of flooding from the sea, accounting for cumulative sea level rise to 2065 

• the ‘Central’ allowance (50^th percentile) for the 2050s epoch (2040-2060) for risk of flooding from surface water.  

For flood risk from the sea, we use the Higher Central estimate reflecting significant uncertainties in climate science for future sea level rise. These approaches are in line with standard guidance for flood and coastal decision making. 

RoFRS shows the chance of flooding from rivers and the sea taking account of flood defences and the condition they are in. For risk relating to climate change, we assume no changes in flood defences or condition. 

Table 4

Flood risk on ‘Flood Map for Planning’ (FMfP) in March 2025 

The data on FMfP are used to inform planning and development decisions. We have chosen time periods appropriate for long-term planning. We have chosen the Upper End allowance for flooding from the sea reflecting significant uncertainties in climate science for future sea level rise, and in line with our precautionary approach for planning and development. 

• the ‘Central’ allowance (50^th percentile) for the 2080s epoch (2070-2125) for risk of flooding from rivers  

• the ‘Upper End’ allowance (95^th percentile) for risk of flooding from the sea, accounting for cumulative sea level rise to 2125.  

For risk relating to climate change for the ‘defended’ scenario, we assume no changes in flood defences and that they will operate effectively. For risk relating to climate change for the ‘undefended’ scenario, we ignore the benefits of any existing flood defences. 

Table 5

Coastal erosion risk on ‘Shoreline Management Plan Explorer’ in January 2025 

The coastal erosion projections use coastal management approaches and time periods from the Shoreline Management Plans.  

Sea level rise due to climate change influences the erosion projections by increasing the erosion rates and decreasing the lifespan of coastal defences.  

Erosion risk zones are shown on the National Coastal Erosion Risk Map for two future climate scenarios:  

• Higher Central allowance (70th percentile) from now to 2055 and from now to 2105. 

• Upper End allowance (95th percentile) from now to 2055 and from now to 2105. 

We have chosen the Higher Central and Upper End allowances for coastal erosion projections reflecting the significant uncertainties in climate science for future sea level rise. These approaches are in line with standard guidance for flood and coastal decision making. 

Table 6

Summary statistics

Alongside our spatial datasets, we provide key summary statistics by geographical boundaries.

The full list of reporting boundaries is:

• Country

• ONS Regions

• EA Areas (Public Facing)

• River Basin District

• LLFA

• RFCC

• MP Constituency

The following statistics are published for all boundaries, separately for rivers/sea and surface water.

Table 7

 We previously published statistics by Local Authority. In January 2025, we have not published statistics by Local Authority but we will seek to publish these statistics shortly.

We have not published statistics for climate change or depth of flooding. This is because these statistics are not available in all locations.