What Data is in Scope?

Focus on Information

Atlantis is targeting primarily those geographic datasets and information required for adequate stewardship of flood-risk and flooding events and similar risks and issues associated with water contamination.


These base geographies underpin the business processes in:

The Fundamental Datasets

The market research undertaken by Atlantis has demonstrated major frustrations and difficulties encountered by users of national datasets today.

The two fundamental datasets to support these processes are

The Digital Terrain Model will be a variable resolution grid which meets the needs of professional water industry users for flood and water related environmental management.

The River network will be a high resolution river model, fully structured, ordered and referenced to which users from all communities can reference their own information and views thereby promoting reliable data sharing.

Both these datasets will be DNF compliant.

The DTM & water network will be hydrologically consistent, such that drainage paths derived from the DTM are in agreement with the mapped rivers. The DTM will not contain any significant artefacts that prevent modelling of the movement of surface water. For the water network there will be a continuous flow from source to sea or internal sink.

The datasets are endorsed & adopted by the six organisations involved.

The priority of the Atlantis partners has been to establish new levels of detail and reliability to meet the needs of today and tomorrow and these two datasets will provide the core components of the next generation of hydrological models.

Complementary datasets

It is proposed that other, complementary, datasets are also made interoperable with these datasets so that third parties can take them and use them easily and without undue effort. The complementary datasets are described in more detail below.

Flood defences (Defra and EA)

The EA manage a National Flood and Coastal Defence Database that records flood defence assets. This database may be linked to the river network in a later release. Click here for more information.

Flood Estimation Handbook (CEH)

A paper and software based product that gives guidance on rainfall and river flood frequency estimation in the UK. Future releases of the FEH may be based on the Atlantis-compliant DTM and river networks. Click here for more information.

Groundwater levels (BGS and EA)

Historical and spatial records of groundwater levels are held by BGS and the Environment Agency Existing products will be enhanced with ‘Atlantis compliant’ metadata.

http://www.bgs.ac.uk

http://www.environment-agency.gov.uk

Flood levels (EA)

The EA hold data on fluvial and coastal flooding, derived from historical observation and predictive modelling. These datasets have often already incorporated the latest DTM data, and this database may be linked to the river network in a later release. Click here for more information.

Groundwater flood susceptibility (BGS)

Maps showing zones likely to include areas prone to groundwater flooding. Existing products will be enhanced with ‘Atlantis compliant’ metadata and may in the future incorporate the improved DTM and river networks. Click here to go to the BGS website.

Geology & soils (BGS)

Geological map data, with information on both superficial geology and underlying solid rocks. Existing products will be enhanced with ‘Atlantis compliant’ metadata. Click here for more information.

Land cover (CEH)

Maps showing land cover derived from original satellite imagery. Existing products will be enhanced with ‘Atlantis compliant’ metadata. Click here for more information.

Built environment (OS)

OS MasterMap data shows detailed topography and the footprints of the built environment. As other Atlantis datasets are enhanced to DNF standards they will link to MasterMap. Click here for more information.

Other complementary datasets will be provided by:

As the Atlantis initiative progresses it is envisaged that other data, for instance on soils, tidal ranges and urban drainage will be incorporated as complementary data.

The Digital National Framework (DNF)

To support information interoperability, Atlantis has adopted the Digital National Framework – this means the datasets: