OPW FRS Benefiting Areas

Abstract: The Office of Public Works (OPW) is responsible for leading and co-ordinating the implementation of localised flood relief schemes to provide flood protection for cities, towns and villages, either directly or in association with relevant Local Authorities. This data outlines the areas benefiting from such flood relief schemes, the date of completion, the design standard and any human intervention that is required. A Benefitting Area is defined as the area that benefits from the implementation of the measures within an Option or Scheme, including improvements to conveyance such as channel widening or deepening, and culvert upgrades.

Lineage: Fluvial and coastal flood maps are developed using hydrodynamic modelling, based on calculated design river flows and extreme sea levels, surveyed channel cross-sections, in-bank / bank-side / coastal structures, Digital Terrain Models, and other relevant datasets (e.g. land use, data on past floods for model calibration, etc.). Typically, these models are run as undefended and defended scenarios to establish the areas defended or benefitting from a Flood Relief Scheme. However, the process may vary for particular schemes or maps and the Technical Hydrology and Hydraulics Reports for each Flood Relief Scheme sets out further technical details on the derivation of the flood maps and associated data.

Purpose: The data has been developed to inform the implementation of Flood Relief Schemes (FRS) to provide flood protection for cities, towns and villages and to describe the FRS characteristics and benefits. This includes a planned programme of prioritised, feasible works in accordance with the National Flood Risk Policy (2004) and to achieve the objectives of the Flood Risk Management Plans developed under the European Communities (Assessment and Management of Flood Risks) Regulations 2010 to 2015 (the “Regulations”) (implementing Directive 2007/60/EC).