NewUpdates to national flood and coastal erosion risk information

Changes to flood and coastal erosion risk information

The Environment Agency is publishing new national risk information for flooding and coastal erosion. This includes future scenarios accounting for climate change.

This guidance provides information on these important changes and our phased approach to publication.

We have published:

• 2817 JanuaryDecember 20252024: NewA ‘National assessment of flood and coastal erosion risk in England 2024’ - this report is a summary of our new National Flood Risk Assessment (NaFRA) data and new National Coastal Erosion Risk Map (NCERM) data

We plan to publish:

• 28 January 2025: New NaFRA2 ‘Risk of flooding from rivers and sea’ and ‘Risk of flooding from surface water’ data.data on ‘Check your long term flood risk’ and available on data.gov.uk
• 28 January 2025: New NationalNew CoastalNCERM Erosionon Risk‘Check Mapcoastal (NCERM)erosion data.risk for an area in England’, on ‘Shoreline Management Plan Explorer’ and available on data.gov.uk
• 17Spring December 20242025: ANew ‘NationalNaFRA2 assessment‘Flood zone’ data on ‘Flood map for planning’ and available on data.gov.uk

We have paused these regular updates in Englandthe 2024’lead reportup -to thispublishing reportthe new flood risk maps. This is ato summarymake ofsure that when we publish our newimproved NaFRAmaps, andthey NCERMare consistent with our current flood risk data. We are also using this time to focus on making the newer data as good as it can be.

We planhave topaused publish:updates to:

• 25

  flood Marchzones, 2025: New NaFRA2 ‘Flood zone’ data on ‘the Flood map for planning’ portal, which was last updated 1 November 2023

• risk of flooding from rivers and availablesea, on data.gov.ukthe Check your long-term flood risk, -which thiswas servicelast allowsupdated developers6 December 2023

We plan to publish our new flood risk information in January and plannersspring 2025. In mid-2025, we will resume regular updates of these maps.

We will continue to findupdate theother data theyincluded needon tothe undertakeFlood Map for Planning portal. This includes data relating to:

• flood riskhistory
• flood assessmentsdefences
• water storage areas

New national flood risk assessmentinformation (NaFRA)

OurNew new NaFRA: information we get during the pause to updates will be included in our flood maps after regular updates resume in 2025.

This includes:

• providesnew alocal singleflood picturemodels ofthat currentwe andhave future floodcreated
• data provided by third parties, subject to business requirements

We will provide notifications to indicate where there is new local flood risk frominformation.

We riverswill anddo thethis sea,on andthe:

• Check fromYour surfaceLong-Term waterFlood Risk website
• uses Flood bothMap existingfor detailedPlanning localportal

New information that has changed our understanding of flood risk for a location may be included in planning and improveddevelopment considerations.

New national data

includesflood risk assessment information

On 17 December 2024 the potentialEnvironment impactAgency ofpublished climatea change‘National onassessment of flood risk,and basedcoastal onerosion UKrisk Climatein ProjectionsEngland (UKCP18) 2024’ report. The report is a summary of the new NaFRA and NCERM data, and identifies national trends in terms of the:

• showssource potentialand characteristics of flood depthsand coastal erosion risk
• providesdistribution muchof higherrisk resolutionacross mapsEngland
• potential thatfor makethese it easier to seechange wherein therethe is riskfuture

Access

We plan to publish improvements to our national flood risk maps from January 2025. These improvements are the result of our new NaFRA data

TheWe are using new NaFRAdata and better methods. We will also publish flood risk data isfor availablenational on:climate change scenarios for the first time.

• You can view your flood risk online using the Check your longlong-term term flood risk website.

  This includes the risk of flooding from:

  • rivers
  • data.gov.ukthe sea
  • surface water
  • reservoirs
  • groundwater (where data is available)

  WeIn alsoJanuary published2025, ayou summarywill see changes to:

  • risk of theflooding new NaFRAfrom datarivers and sea
  • risk of flooding from surface water

  For planning and development, you can check whether your area is in a flood zone using the ‘NationalFlood assessmentmap offor planning portal. You will see changes to the flood andzones coastalin erosionspring 2025.

  These datasets are also available for users to download on the Defra Data Services Platform.

  Future scenarios accounting for climate change

  We will publish new national flood risk ininformation Englandaccounting 2024’for climate change. We are generating future scenarios using climate change allowances report..

  These are scenarios of anticipated change for:

  • peak river flow
  • peak rainfall intensity
  • sea level rise
  • offshore wind speed and extreme wave height

  Improvements to our national flood risk mapping

  The Environment Agency hasis updatedupdating our flood risk information using a new process. This has been developed for our new national flood risk assessment. The process combines new and existing data to improve our national flood risk maps.

  This includes:

  • outputs from detailed local flood risk models
  • a new state-of-the-art national flood risk model

  Local modelling of flood risk often captures important local features better than national modelling.

  The new national model is a significant improvement on our existing national modelling. We will use outputs from this national model in areas where we do not have high-quality local modelling.

  The new process haswill resultedresult in a range of improvements to our national flood risk mapping, including:

  • greater consistency between local and national flood risk information
  • additional risk information, including flood depth
  • finer spatial resolution for flood risk from rivers and sea

  We invitedare inviting lead local flood authorities and coastal risk management authorities to review a draft version of our:

  • new surface water maps
  • coastal flood risk maps

  This ensuredwill help us make sure they wereare as high quality as possible ahead of publication.

  Future scenarios accounting for climate change

  We have published new national flood risk information accounting for climate change. We are generating future scenarios using climate change allowances.

  These are scenarios of anticipated change for:

  • peak river flow
  • peak rainfall intensity
  • sea level rise
  • offshore wind speed and extreme wave height

  Detail for our professional partners

  We make national flood risk data freely and openly available to a wide range of users via the the Defra Data Services Platform ( (DSP). The The DSP provides provides the best available information on flood risk. This helps organisations with a role in flood risk management or with a need to plan their own operations.

  We havewill publishedpublish new flood risk information on the the DSP including: including:

  • scenarios accounting for climate change
  • maps of flood depth

  There havewill beenbe some changes to data formats and structures. You willmay need to change your processing steps if you are a regular user of the data published on the the DSP.

  You can find more detail about these changes on the the Defra DSP Support pages. The page provides detail on:

  • the datasets we arewill publishingpublish
  • how to access the data
  • changes to formats and schema for our existing datasets
  • the datasets we will not initially replace

  Further

  Updated updatescoastal toerosion our flood risk information

  We planalso topublished updatea oursummary floodof risk information regularly to reflect new local information.

  This includes:

  • new local flood models that we have created
  • data provided by third parties, subject to business requirements

  We paused regular updates in the lead up to publishing the new flood risk maps. We plan to resume regular flood risk updates from summer 2025.

  We will provide notifications to indicate where there is new local flood risk information.

  We will do this on the:

  • check your long term flood risk website
  • flood map for planning portal

  New national coastal erosion risk map (NCERM)

  Our data newin NCERM:

  • provides the most‘National upassessment toof dateflood nationaland picture of coastal erosion risk forin England
  • is based on coastal monitoring data from the National Network of Regional Coastal Monitoring Programmes2024’ - thisreport includes 10 years more evidence on coastal17 processesDecember since2024. theThe originalreport mapalso wasuses published
  • accountsnew forNaFRA the UK Climate Projections (UKCP18) which includes allowances for sea level rise
  data.

  ItWe reflectsplan the latest coastal management approaches set out in shoreline management plans (SMPs). Our assessment identifies the impacts of coastal erosion. It does this with SMPs being funded and delivered compared to thepublish worst case where the SMPs are not funded or delivered.  

  Access the new NCERM data

  in January 2025. The new NCERM data iswill be available on:

  • on checkCheck coastal erosion risk for an area in England
  • , shorelineShoreline Management Plan Explorer and shoreline management plans guidance
  • data.gov.uk

  WeYou alsocan publishedcurrently aview summaryyour oferosion therisk new NCERM dataonline inusing the ‘NationalCheck assessment of flood and coastal erosion riskmanagement in Englandyour 2024’area report. website.

  Improvements to our national coastal erosion risk mapping

  Extensive coastal data sets for England have been gathered since the publication of the the NCERM in in 2012.

  This has been done by:

  • the Environment Agency
  • local authorities
  • Nationalcoastal Networkmonitoring of Regional Coastal Monitoring Programmesprogrammes
  • other coastal partners

  We have used this evidence to provide the most up to date national assessment of coastal erosion risk for England.

  The new national coastal erosion risk information:

  • uses coastal data and new methods to provide more reliable erosion projectionspredictions
  • shows the coastal erosion risk information in a mapped format to be used by coastal managers, planners and decision makers
  • will be publicly accessible to encourage wider understanding of coastal erosion risk

  Future scenarios accounting for climate change

  We haveare producedproducing potential future scenarios using new techniques to model how erosion may increase with rising sea levels because of climate change.

  OurWe newplan to publish updated national coastal erosion risk information is based on these scenarios.

  Further updates to our coastal erosion  risk information

  On 28 January 2025 we published the new NCERM data on check coastal erosion risk for an area in England and SMP Explorer. The first update is expected to be later in 2025. While details are to be confirmed, we expect updates to then follow yearly.

  Contact the Environment Agency

  General enquiries

  National Customer Contact Centre
  PO Box 544
  Rotherham
  S60 1BY
  

  Email enquiries@environment-agency.gov.uk

  Telephone 03708 506 506 (Monday to Friday, 8am to 6pm)

  Telephone from outside the UK +44 (0) 114 282 5312 (Monday to Friday, 8am to 6pm GMT)