Dataset (draft)
Flood areas by council: dataset
Which official flood warning areas cover each pilot council, from the Environment Agency, SEPA and Natural Resources Wales.
Draft dataset
This page and its files are a preview. For flood warnings now, use the official services linked below.
What it is
For each of our 20 pilot councils, the number of official flood alert areas and flood warning areas that overlap it, and the names of the warning areas. England uses Environment Agency areas, Scotland uses SEPA’s and Wales uses Natural Resources Wales’s.
| Council | Agency | Flood alert areas | Flood warning areas |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cornwall | Environment Agency | 18 | 58 |
| Plymouth | Environment Agency | 0 | 5 |
| Torbay | Environment Agency | 0 | 1 |
| Somerset | Environment Agency | 17 | 76 |
| Bristol | Environment Agency | 1 | 16 |
| Tewkesbury | Environment Agency | 2 | 11 |
| Shropshire | Environment Agency | 7 | 21 |
| Birmingham | Environment Agency | 3 | 27 |
| Manchester | Environment Agency | 0 | 19 |
| Leeds | Environment Agency | 4 | 45 |
| Calderdale | Environment Agency | 1 | 32 |
| York | Environment Agency | 2 | 31 |
| Hull | Environment Agency | 3 | 26 |
| Cumberland | Environment Agency | 8 | 68 |
| Southwark | Environment Agency | 2 | 6 |
| Maidstone | Environment Agency | 3 | 8 |
| Glasgow | SEPA | 1 | 13 |
| Highland | SEPA | 5 | 44 |
| Cardiff | Natural Resources Wales | 4 | 14 |
| Conwy | Natural Resources Wales | 5 | 23 |
Method
- England: the Environment Agency flood-monitoring API lists flood areas by county; we keep those that overlap the council.
- Scotland and Wales: we overlay the SEPA and NRW flood area boundaries on ONS council boundaries. An area counts if at least 1% of it lies inside the council.
- Our archive of live flood warnings (England only) began on 1 November 2026.
Limits
- A flood area is where a warning service exists. It does not show where it will or will not flood, and many places with flood risk have no warning area.
- Flood warnings do not cover surface water (flash) flooding.
- No map file yet: the boundary files are large, so the app would load them from the agencies directly.
Sign up for free flood warnings
- England: GOV.UK flood warnings
- Scotland: SEPA Floodline
- Wales: Natural Resources Wales
- Floodline: 0345 988 1188
Licences and credits
- Environment Agency real-time flood-monitoring API: Open Government Licence v3.0. This uses Environment Agency flood and river level data from the real-time data API (Beta).
- SEPA Flood Warning Areas and Flood Alert Areas: © SEPA, Open Government Licence v3.0.
- Natural Resources Wales Flood Warning Areas and Flood Alert Areas via DataMapWales: Open Government Licence; contains Natural Resources Wales information © NRW and database right.
- Council boundaries: ONS Open Geography Portal, Open Government Licence.
Download
How to cite it
Never Caught Out (2026). Flood areas by council, version 0.1, 1 November 2026. https://nevercaughtout.co.uk/data/flood-areas/
Please also credit the original publishers listed above, as their licences require.