New Surface Water Climate Change Data added to EA’s Flood Map for Planning
On 28th May 2026, the Environment Agency (EA) updated its Flood Map for Planning (FMfP) to include surface water climate change data extents, as well as banded depth layers for both the present day and climate change scenarios.
This follows an earlier update on the 20th of May 2026, where the Flood Zones and climate change layers were updated as per a routine refresh.
The latest update is designed to improve how future surface water flood risk is considered within the planning process, helping property professionals, local authorities and environmental consultants make more informed decisions about flood risk, surface water drainage and site suitability.
Flood Zones and existing present-day surface water flood extents remain unchanged. However, the new datasets introduce climate-adjusted surface water information directly into the FMfP for the first time, replacing the need to use surface water datasets from the Check Your Long Term Flood Risk (CYLTFR) service for planning.
Why has the Flood Map for Planning been updated?
The new datasets aim to better align surface water flood information with the climate change scenarios and future time horizons typically required for planning applications and Flood Risk Assessments (FRAs).
Previously, surface water information hosted on CYLTFR was often used to support planning decisions. However, the climate assumptions behind those datasets did not fully align with the EA’s planning guidance for most developments.
The updated FMfP datasets now use:
- Upper end climate change allowances (95th percentile)
- 2070s climate projections (2061–2125)
This provides a more precautionary and planning-focused understanding of future surface water flood risk.
What does this mean for planning applications?
For some sites, there may be little noticeable change.
However, the updated datasets could:
- Identify new areas of future surface water flood risk
- Trigger the need for an FRA
- Trigger Sequential Test requirements (where exemptions do not apply)
- Require updates to existing drainage strategies or flood reports
The new datasets can also support:
- Strategic Flood Risk Assessments (SFRAs)
- Sustainable drainage planning
- Early-stage development feasibility assessments
As local authorities begin incorporating the updated datasets into their systems and planning workflows, climate-adjusted surface water flood risk is likely to become an increasingly important consideration for development proposals.
How does this affect Flood Risk and Drainage reporting?
The addition of banded depth data provides greater detail on the potential severity of surface water flooding under climate change scenarios.
This can help improve:
- Site-specific FRAs
- Surface water mitigation strategies
- Sustainable drainage design
- Development layout and resilience planning
At GeoSmart, our flood risk and drainage reports are designed to help clients interpret evolving planning requirements and environmental datasets clearly and efficiently.
By combining planning expertise with proprietary flood risk data and consultancy-led interpretation, we help property professionals understand what changing flood datasets mean in practice for their sites and projects.
A growing focus on climate resilience
The FMfP update reflects a wider shift towards embedding future climate resilience more directly into planning and development decisions.
As flood risk datasets evolve, early due diligence and robust flood and drainage assessment will become increasingly important for supporting sustainable development and reducing future flood risk.
If you would like advice on how the updated FMfP datasets could affect your site or planning application, the GeoSmart team are here to help.
