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About the data

This web app was built by Owen Boswarva (@owenboswarva) and uses risk data from the December 2014 release of the following Environment Agency dataset:

Risk of Flooding from Rivers and Sea Postcodes in Areas at Risk (RoFRS)

The Environment Agency data is used under the Open Government Licence. The attribution statement is as follows:

© Environment Agency copyright and/or database right 2014. All rights reserved. © Crown copyright and database rights 2013 Ordnance Survey 100024198 Some of the data in the database has been produced using data licensed from the Centre for Ecology & Hydrology, © NERC

The risk data has been appended to postcode coordinates from the ONS Postcode Directory (ONSPD) and Ordnance Survey's Code-Point Open product. Those datasets have been used under the Open Government Licence and the OS Open Data Licence. The attribution statement is as follows:

Contains Ordnance Survey data © Crown copyright and database right 2014
Contains Royal Mail data © Royal Mail copyright and database right 2014
Contains National Statistics data © Crown copyright and database right 2014

To understand the Environment Agency risk data properly you should read EA's documentation. However, in brief:

RoFRS is an Environment Agency model that assesses "the likelihood of flooding from rivers and the sea at any location, based on the presence and effect of all flood defences, predicted flood levels, and ground levels." The postcode version of RoFRS used in this app describes the likelihood of flooding in one of four categories:

• High - greater than or equal to 1 in 30 (3.3%) chance in any given year
• Medium - less than 1 in 30 (3.3%) but greater than or equal to 1 in 100 (1%) chance in any given year
• Low - less than 1 in 100 (1%) but greater than or equal to 1 in 1,000 (0.1%) chance in any given year
• Very Low - less than 1 in 1,000 (0.1%) chance in any given year

When using the web app please also bear in mind the following points:

• Map markers for postcode locations have been colour-coded based on the highest level of risk to any property in each postcode, and do not necessarily represent the level of risk at the postcode centroid.
• The RoFRS model excludes some other potential sources of flooding, such as surface water during heavy rain.
• The RoFRS postcode data describes the likelihood of flooding but not the potential extent of damage to properties.