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Guidance

Flood and coastal risk products: submit an evidence review request

How to submit an Evidence Review Request (ERR) for Environment Agency national flood and coastal erosion risk products

From:
Environment Agency
Published:
21 September 2026

Applies to England

National flood and coastal erosion risk products

The Environment Agency publishes national flood and coastal erosion risk information through:

Further product information is available on the Defra Data Services Platform, including:

Important

  • national flood and coastal erosion risk products do not show risk at a property level
  • each product is designed for different purposes and therefore uses different methods and terminology
  • we routinely update products to include new data and improvements

Submitting an evidence review request

If you disagree with the flood or coastal erosion risk information shown for a location, you can contact us to discuss it. You can then submit new evidence for us to review by making an evidence review request (ERR).

We will assess your evidence and decide whether it can be incorporated into our national flood and coastal erosion risk products. Any information you provide must meet our technical standards.

Risk of flooding from surface water and surface water for spatial planning

If you want to submit evidence to change the risk of flooding from surface water and surface water for spatial planning datasets, you must contact your lead local flood authority (LLFA).

You can find out more about understanding and using the Risk of Flooding from Surface Water datasets online.

National coastal erosion risk mapping and risk of flooding from reservoirs

You can email enquiries@environment-agency.gov.uk for details on how to submit evidence for our National Coastal Erosion Risk Mapping and Risk of Flooding from Reservoirs products.

You can find out when and how to use Risk of Flooding from Reservoirs online.

All other flood risk products, including Risk of Flooding from Rivers and Sea and Flood Zones

The evidence we accept

We only consider or accept evidence if it is based on one of the following:

  • new or updated flood modelling
  • topographical survey data for small areas (less than 250 sqm) where ground levels are not represented correctly in our published products
  • recorded flood information (for flood zone products only)

Where the product uses a local flood model, we may be able to provide the model information for you to update the model.

What to expect

When you submit an ERR, we follow these steps:

  • before we ask you to provide evidence, we will check our published products and any plans to update them or address known data issues
  • we will review your evidence and may request amendments
  • if your model is of lower quality or condition than the existing model, we may not use it
  • we carry out additional postprocessing steps to create the national maps, so final outputs may differ from your model
  • we cannot accept model or survey evidence as ERRs for areas where changes such as land-raising are planned but not yet completed
  • incorporating new evidence may take several months - there are several stages to the process of reviewing, accepting and incorporating data into our products
  • if your model is accepted, we may add a holding comment to some of our public services to show updated information is available but not yet published
  • information you provide which is accepted and added to our maps may be superseded and replaced by other new evidence

Flood Risk Assessments (FRA) for planning and development

The requirements for modelling used in a Flood Risk Assessment (FRA) are different from those for an ERR. You can find these requirements on Using modelling for flood risk assessments - GOV.UK

A correction to the Flood Zones or other layers is rarely needed for planning decisions. This is because planning authorities rely mainly on site-specific flood risk assessments, which build on and refine the flood map for planning information. You can read more about Flood risk assessments for planning applications online.

If you are submitting modelling for a development planning application, you should use the Environment Agency’s planning advice service. This is a discretionary charged-for service that provides advice on modelling for planning and may allow us to complete our review more quickly.

If you intend to use the same model for both an FRA and an ERR, you must meet the requirements for both.

Data sharing agreement

You must agree to a data sharing agreement before we can use your evidence to update our published products.

How to proceed

To submit an ERR or discuss the data shown for a location, contact:

Provide details of the product and location you are enquiring about.

Updates to this page

Published 21 September 2026

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