Today the Environment Agency (EA) has released its new National Flood Risk Assessment 2 (NaFRA2) mapping used within the ‘Check your long-term Flood Risk’ website tool and the related datasets available through the DEFRA Data Services Platform (DSP).
The ‘Check your long-term Flood Risk’ website can be used by anyone to find out what the risk of flooding is for a property in England. The website will give a high, medium, low or very low rating for flood risk from rivers and the sea, and surface water flood risk. It will also summarise if the property is at risk from reservoir failure and from groundwater flooding.
The new National Coastal Erosion Risk Map (NCERM) has also been released through the Shoreline Management Plan explorer, with data also available on the DEFRA DSP.
The NCERM and the Shoreline Management Plan Explorer website were created in order to assist coastal managers and planners in making both short-term and long-term decisions to manage the risk of coastal erosion.
In succession the EA will also be updating its ‘Flood map for planning’ website tool and associated data on the DEFRA DSP using the new NaFRA2 mapping. This release is estimated for Spring 2025.
The ‘Flood map for planning’ is typically used by developers and planners when reviewing flood risk for a future development. This website will explain which flood zone the property (or site) is within and what is required for a planning application in this flood zone.
The NaFRA2 is an update from the previous NaFRA published in 2018. Flood risk datasets had been rigorously examined by Lead Local Flood Authorities (LLFAs) and the EA using the best available information to ensure updates to the mapping reflect current and future flood risk from rivers, the sea and surface water for England.
The NCERM has also been updated for the first time since 2017 and provides the most up to date national picture of the current and future coastal erosion risk for England using the best available evidence from the National Network of Regional Coastal Monitoring Programme.
For the first time both NaFRA and NCERM account for the latest UK climate projections from the Met Office. The EA is also adding new information to the above website tools which include:
- Flood depth for the risk of flooding from rivers and sea on ‘Check your long-term Flood Risk’
- Data showing a 1 in 30 (3.3%) annual chance of flooding from rivers and sea, with any existing defences operating effectively, on ‘Flood map for planning’
Some older datasets are however not being updated as part of NaFRA2 and have been discontinued.
The updates to the flood risk information are part of the EA’s wider launch of the new ‘National assessment of flood and coastal erosion risk in England 2024’, the report having been released in December 2024. This latest report estimates 6.3 million properties in England are at risk of flooding from either one or a combination of rivers, the sea and surface water.
It is hopeful that with more detailed flood and coastal risk information, including considerations for climate change, authorities can plan flood mitigation infrastructure more effectively and better support communities in becoming resilient for the future.
At FPS we work continually to support and help mitigate flood risk. If you are in need of any consultation on current or potential flood risk, contact us now and see what we can do for you.
Written by Lauren Barraclough, Flood Risk Consultant, BSc (Hons) MCIWEM