Central Bedfordshire Council's Interactive Flood Mapping Portal

This Interactive Flood Mapping Portal has been prepared as part of Central Bedfordshire Council’s Strategic Flood Risk Assessment (SFRA) 2025 and should be viewed in conjunction with the Level 1 SFRA Report, available on the Council’s website.

In accordance with the National Planning Policy Framework, Central Bedfordshire Council commissioned a Level 1 SFRA to inform the preparation of the Council’s new Local Plan and planning application decisions. The SFRA forms part of the evidence base for the Local Plan and ensures that the risk of flooding from all sources is considered when allocating land for development and drafting policies.

An essential component of the SFRA is the mapping, which has been produced to help users identify the sources and areas of flood risk in Central Bedfordshire, including areas at risk from climate change effects. The mapping produced for the Council’s SFRA is available to view on this portal (click on map above and select datasets). For more information on the datasets used in the mapping, please see the Interactive Mapping Portal User Guide.

It should be noted that Flood Zones 2 and 3a, which consider undefended fluvial or tidal risk show the same extent as the online EA's Flood Map for Planning (which incorporates latest modelled data). Flood Zone 3b considers defended fluvial or tidal risk and is based on the best available modelled data.

Watercourses across Central Bedfordshire are shown, along with flood risk from all sources including fluvial, surface water and reservoirs. Groundwater flooding susceptibility, historical flooding, defences and areas at reduced risk due to defences, are also shown as well as emergency planning information including Flood Warning Areas and Flood Alert Areas.

Please note, since the Level 1 SFRA was published, the Environment Agency have published NaFRA2. This means the ‘Risk of flooding from rivers and sea’, ‘Risk of flooding from surface water’ and Flood Zones from the ‘Flood Map for Planning’ mapping shown on this Interactive Mapping Portal, and used in the Level 1 assessment, has been superseded. This may result in differences between the NaFRA2 mapping and data displayed in this Interactive Mapping Portal. The data will be updated in this Interactive Mapping Portal, as appropriate, in due course. In the meantime, please check the GOV.UK website to view the latest data available.

Climate change mapping has also been published through NaFRA2 for both surface water and rivers and sea flood risk; however, the surface water outputs released do not align with the guidance for planning. Therefore, it is suggested the climate change surface water mapping shown in this Interactive Mapping Portal is used until more suitable data becomes available, as it is anticipated that the Environment Agency will release further surface water climate change data in the future.

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