The Flood Map for Planning Service includes several layers of information. This includes the Flood Zones plus climate change data which shows how the combined extent of Flood Zones 2 and 3 could increase with climate change over the next century, ignoring the benefits of any existing flood defences. We have assumed no changes to flood defences or land-use that could occur in future. The effects of climate change on flood risk we may see in the future could be different to those currently considered.
Flood Zones plus climate change should be used to help planners and developers identify the need for:
• a site-specific flood risk assessment
• the sequential test.
The dataset can also help to inform the preparation of strategic flood risk assessments.
The Flood Zones plus climate change are a composite dataset including national and local modelled data, and information from past floods.
The Flood Zones plus climate change are designed to only give an indication of flood risk to an area of land and are not suitable for showing whether an individual property is at risk of flooding. This is because we cannot know all the details about each property.
Flood Zones plus climate change uses the following climate change allowances:
• ‘Central’ allowance for the 2080s epoch (2070-2125) for risk of flooding from rivers
• ‘Upper End’ allowance for risk of flooding from the sea, accounting for cumulative sea level rise to 2125.
Users of these datasets should always check they are suitable for the intended use. Attribution statement: © Environment Agency copyright and/or database right 2025. All rights reserved.