Flood risk identification and warning

The Environment Agency can supply flood risk information on any given location, using the postcode of the location being queried. Follow the link below to their website.

There are a number of other ways to find out if a particular location is likely to flood. Local place names are often a good clue, street names with a watery theme in the title, e.g. water, spring, wharf, well, mill, bourne or brook, are all strong hints that water is, or once was, nearby. That does not mean that flooding is inevitable.

Speaking to long standing, local inhabitants may help. Remember, people move house more often nowadays, so when someone says “this place hasn’t flooded in living memory”, they could actually mean since they have lived there, which might only be 10 years or so. We are currently seeing flooding in places where it hasn’t occurred for 30 years or more. Local history societies may also be valuable sources of information.

Flood warning areas

Environment Agency leaflets can be downloaded below which give details of the areas covered by Flood Watches and the river reaches covered by Flood Warnings. 

Flood warning

Principal responsibility for flood warning lies with the Environment Agency, which will alert the emergency services, the local authorities, the media and river watches. Individual properties in high-risk areas may receive warnings direct by phone, fax or email from the automated Flood Warnings Direct (FWD) system. Radio and television will broadcast flood warnings and the Environment Agency has a Floodline telephone number, 0845 988 1188, which the public can use to obtain the most recent information about warnings in their area.

The Environment Agency have recently changed the flood codes they issue to make them clearer. The new ones are:

Flood Alert - this replaces our current Flood Watch. A Flood Alert means that flooding is possible and that you need to be prepared.

Flood Warning - means that flooding is expected and that you should take immediate action. You should take action when a flood warning is issued and not wait for a severe flood warning.

Severe Flood Warning - means that there is severe flooding and danger to life. These are issued when flooding is posing significant risk to life or disruption to communities.

For more information follow the link below to Flood Warning codes on the Environment Agency website

The warning system works well for river flooding, where water levels can be more accurately predicted, but it’s more difficult to predict sudden, very localised, events such as flash flooding from intense storms.

To find information on current flood warnings go to the Environment Agency website using the link below.

Date Updated: 20/12/10

Downloads:

File name	Summary	File size / Download time	File Format
Adobe Acrobat Reader is available FREE of charge. You can download it directly from Adobe's website by clicking the link to the right. Once on Adobe's website, follow the instructions on screen to install the latest version of Adobe Acrobat Reader.
Flood Codes		454KB 56Kbps Modem: 1 Minute 6 Seconds Broadband : Less than 1 Minute
Aylesbury Bear Brook and tributaries		404KB 56Kbps Modem: Less than 1 Minute Broadband : Less than 1 Minute
Great Ouse, Buckingham		2.8MB 56Kbps Modem: 6 Minutes Broadband : Less than 1 Minute
River Thame Eythrope to Shillingford		455KB 56Kbps Modem: 1 Minute 6 Seconds Broadband : Less than 1 Minute
River Thame Long Marston to Eythrope		386KB 56Kbps Modem: Less than 1 Minute Broadband : Less than 1 Minute