Flood Data
We provide high spatial resolution flood data suitable for flood risk assessment and mapping. The data give an indication of the spatial extent and probability of occurrence of climate change flood inundations.
First natural risk in Europe by the number of exposed people and the damage they cause, floods affect all countries.
Climate change will bring more frequent floods across Europe, posing a threat to human safety, homes, businesses, and infrastructures.
What is a flood inundation?
Flood inundation happens when there is a large amount of water in an area that it becomes submerged.
They are four common types of flooding :
- A river (or fluvial) flood occurs when the river water level overflows the banks due to excessive precipitation. River floods can cause breaking dikes and dams and swamp surrounding areas. It is the most common flooding case.
- Urban flooding is the inundation of land or property in a built environment caused by rainfall and impervious surfaces that overwhelm the capacity of drainage systems, such as storm sewers.
- Groundwater flooding occurs when the water table in the permeable rocks (aquifers) comes up above to the ground surface. It usually happens days or weeks after heavy or prolonged precipitation. Groundwater flooding is much slower to occur than other flooding types.
- Coastal flooding is an inundation of land areas along the shore by seawater. The main causes of sea level rise are high windstorms that occur during high tides (storm surge).
What is flood risk ?
Flood risk is a combination of the probability (likelihood) of an event that happens and the consequences (impacts) if it occurred. The risk of flooding depends on the existence of a flood source, such as a river, a channel taken by the flood water (pathway) and a feature affected by the flood, such as than an infrastructure. Return periods are used to describe how often a flood event will occur. Return periods are an average of how often a flood event of a given magnitude will occur, and therefore the probability of flooding is expected to occur.
For instance, the probability of a 100-year flood will occur in 2040 is of 20% with extend inundation areas up to +30%.
To properly model flood hazard, high-resolution climate forcing datasets and an understanding of relevant underlying processes, including topography, location and size of channels, and the physics of flood wave propagation through channels and floodplains, are required. Our in-house expertise in 1D/2D numerical hydraulic modeling have let us to produce high resolution flood hazard maps for different return periods.
Advantages
The benefits offered by our service
Between 2025 and 2100
1971-2015 or 1981-2010
France and International
Who ?
The flood data we provide are intended for local authorities as well as financers and insurance, infrastructures sector, farmers, or water management.
Our user cases
Discover our case studies: Flood Data
