Flood Map for Planning / Development Advice Map
Development Advice Map
The Flood Map for Planning will replace the Development Advice Map from 1 December 2021. After this date, the Development Advice Map will not hold any weight in the planning decision making process.
The Development Advice Map will be available until January 2022
(Right click on the map button to open it in a new tab)
Flood Map for Planning
The Flood Map for Planning is for land use planning purposes. You should use it alongside Planning Policy Wales and Technical Advice Note (TAN) 15 to direct new developments to areas at minimal risk of flooding. Together, they are a risk-based framework to guide planning applications.
The map includes climate change information to show how this will affect flood risk extents over the next century. It shows the potential extent of flooding assuming no defences are in place.
For present day, defended flood risk, view our Flood Risk Assessment Wales map. This map has no official status for planning purposes as it does not consider the impact of climate change in the future. Together the two maps form the Wales Flood Map.
The Flood Map for Planning has two views:
- Basic - this includes enough data for high level screening against TAN 15
- Detailed - this includes extra detail that can be used for Flood Consequences Assessments
(Right click on the map button to open it in a new tab)
What do the map layers mean?
The Flood Map for Planning has the following layers, which show the potential extent of flooding, assuming no defences are in place:
Rivers – Flood Zone 2
Areas with 0.1% to 1% (1 in 1000 to 1 in 100) chance of flooding from rivers in a given year, including the effects of climate change.
Rivers – Flood Zone 3
Areas with more than 1% (1 in 100) chance of flooding from rivers in a given year, including the effects of climate change.
Rivers & Sea – Flood Zone 2
The combined 0.1% risk of flooding from rivers and the sea including climate change.
Rivers & Sea – Flood Zone 3
The combined 1% risk of flooding from rivers and the sea including climate change.
Sea – Flood Zone 2
Areas with 0.1% to 0.5% (1 in 1000 to 1 in 200) chance of flooding from the sea in a given year, including the effects of climate change.
Sea – Flood Zone 3
Surface Water and Small Watercourses – Flood Zone 2
Areas with 0.1% to 1% (1 in 1000 to 1 in 100) chance of flooding from surface water and/or small watercourses in a given year, including the effects of climate change.
Surface Water and Small Watercourses – Flood Zone 3
Areas with more than 1% (1 in 100) chance of flooding from surface water and/or small watercourses in a given year, including the effects of climate change
TAN15 Defended Zones
Area that benefit from Risk Management Authority flood defences with the following minimum Standard of Protection:
- 1 in 100 year (present day) for rivers
- 1 in 200 year (present day) for the sea
Recorded Flood Extents
Areas that are recorded as having flooded previously.
Flood defence location
More information about the location and standard of protection of formal flood risk defences.
Flood risk from reservoirs
More information about reservoir flood risk.
Main rivers
More information about main rivers. If a planning proposal is next to a main river, you may need a permit in addition to planning permission.
NRW Local Model Manager
Areas where NRW holds detailed local flood models, which may be useful to help inform a flood consequences assessment to support a planning application. Contact datadistribution@naturalresourcewales.gov.uk to ask for access to this data.
Shoreline Management Plans & coastal erosion
More information about Shoreline Management Plans and coastal erosion. You will need to consider these plans for coastal development proposals. Erosion rates on the map are for short, medium and longer term periods. These are based on ‘confidence bandings’ (of 5%, 50% and 95%) and follow the current Shoreline Management Plan policies.
Challenging our flood maps
Find out more about our flood risk mapping information, including guidance about:
Developing your own hydraulic models
Modelling for Flood Consequence Assessments
GIS data
If you need to download GIS data, many of the map layers can be downloaded from DataMapWales.
Acknowledgements
Contains Natural Resources Wales information © Natural Resources Wales and database right. All rights reserved. Some features of this information are based on digital spatial data licensed from the UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology © UKCEH, the Environment Agency © EA and Getmapping Plc and Bluesky International Limited [2015]. Defra, Met Office and DARD Rivers Agency © Crown copyright. © Cranfield University. © James Hutton Institute. Contains OS data © Crown copyright and database right. Land & Property Services © Crown copyright and database r