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An improved database of coastal flooding in the United Kingdom from 1915 to 2016

Coastal flooding caused by extreme sea levels can produce devastating and wide-ranging consequences. The ‘SurgeWatch’ v1.0 database systematically documents and assesses the consequences of historical coastal flood events around the UK. The original database was inevitably biased due to the inconsistent spatial and temporal coverage of sea-level observations utilised. Therefore, we present an improved version integrating a variety of ‘soft’ data such as journal papers, newspapers, weather reports, and social media. SurgeWatch2.0 identifies 329 coastal flooding events from 1915 to 2016, a more than fivefold increase compared to the 59 events in v1.0. Moreover, each flood event is now ranked using a multi-level categorisation based on inundation, transport disruption, costs, and fatalities: from 1 (Nuisance) to 6 (Disaster). For the 53 most severe events ranked Category 3 and above, an accompanying event description based upon the Source-Pathway-Receptor-Consequence framework was produced. The database contains 57 files: 1 XLSX file, 54 PDF files and 1 CSV file. The first file is a spreadsheet (XLSX) containing the list of all 329 coastal flood events in the database categorised according to the severity scale that we devised. The second and third files are PDF documents containing the short commentaries for all Category 1 and 2 events. There are an additional 53 PDF files containing the longer event commentaries for events ranked Category 3 and higher. A final CSV file contains the digitised storm tracks for the 53 Category 3 and higher events. Each of these files is self-describing and is accompanied by extensive metadata. SurgeWatch v2.0 provides the most comprehensive and coherent historical record of UK coastal flooding. It is designed to be a resource for research, planning and management and education. Haigh et al. (2017) provides more detail. Collation of the database and the development of the website was funded through a Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) impact acceleration grant. The database contributes to the objectives of UK Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) consortium project FLOOD Memory (EP/K013513/1).

Simple

Alternate title
British Oceanographic Data Centre record 1048_surgewatch2.0
Date (Publication)
2018-05-18
Date (Creation)
2017-02-06
Date (Revision)
2021-04-21
Identifier
http://www.bodc.ac.uk/ / EDMED6588
Owner
  University of Southampton School of Ocean and Earth Science - Unknown ( Unknown )
National Oceanography Centre, European Way , Southampton , Hampshire , SO14 3ZH , United Kingdom
+44 (0)23 8059 2011
http://www.soes.soton.ac.uk/
Originator
  University of Southampton School of Ocean and Earth Science - Unknown ( Unknown )
National Oceanography Centre, European Way , Southampton , Hampshire , SO14 3ZH , United Kingdom
+44 (0)23 8059 2011
http://www.soes.soton.ac.uk/
Custodian
  British Oceanographic Data Centre - Director
Joseph Proudman Building , 6 Brownlow Street , Liverpool , Merseyside , L3 5DA , United Kingdom
https://www.bodc.ac.uk/
Distributor
  British Oceanographic Data Centre - Director
Joseph Proudman Building , 6 Brownlow Street , Liverpool , Merseyside , L3 5DA , United Kingdom
https://www.bodc.ac.uk/
Maintenance and update frequency
asNeeded As needed
INSPIRE themes
  • Meteorological geographical features
  • Elevation
SeaDataNet PDV
  • Other meteorological measurements
  • Sea level
Vertical Coverages
  • unknown
MEDIN metadata record availability
  • Marine Environmental Data and Information Network
  • Natural Environment Research Council Designated Data Centres
Access constraints
otherRestrictions Other restrictions
Other constraints
No limitations apply
Other constraints
Data are freely available
Use constraints
otherRestrictions Other restrictions
Other constraints
No conditions apply
Spatial representation type
Text, table
Metadata language
EnglishEnglish
Topic category
  • Elevation
  • Oceans
  • Climatology, meteorology, atmosphere
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W
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Geographic identifier
North Atlantic Ocean

Date (Revision)
2021-10-28

Geographic identifier
North Sea

Date (Revision)
2021-10-28

Geographic identifier
Irish Sea

Date (Revision)
2021-10-28

Geographic identifier
Bristol Channel

Date (Revision)
2021-10-28

Geographic identifier
English Channel

Date (Revision)
2021-10-28

Begin date
1915-01-01
End date
2016-12-31
Unique resource identifier
urn:ogc:def:crs:EPSG::4326
Codespace
OGP
Distribution format
  • Delimited ()

OnLine resource
Dataset Web Site
OnLine resource
Published dataset - doi:10.5285/481720c2-35bd-6c10-e053-6c86abc06bb3

Haigh I.D.; Ozsoy O.; Wadey M.P.; Nicholls R.J.; Gallop S.L.; Wahl T.; Brown J. (2017). An improved database of coastal flooding in the United Kingdom from 1915 to 2016. British Oceanographic Data Centre - Natural Environment Research Council, UK. doi:10/bzjx

Hierarchy level
dataset Dataset

Conformance result

Date (Publication)
2010-12-08
Explanation
BODC protocols are based on the Open Archival Information System (OAIS) model enabling BODC to iterate towards compliance with the on-going evolution and development of community requirements including FAIR (Findable,Accessible,Interoperable,Reusable), TRUST (Transparency, Responsibility, User community, Sustainability, Technology) and CARE (Collective Benefit, Authority to Control, Responsibility, Ethics). Data managers quality assure submissions and assemble the metadata necessary for curation. Submissions (as received) are placed in a long-term accession and stored in triplicate across multiple sites. Appropriate data are transferred into a standard internal format with source variable names mapped to controlled vocabularies, documentation assembled, and metadata loaded into BODC databases. Access to these data is through direct request, the BODC website and through partner repositories such as SeaDataNet. Access control is attained by assigning a data policy to each set of data and this policy is used to administer access when data are requested. Discovery metadata is aligned with EU INSPIRE (through MEDIN) and SeaDataNet community standards. Data are converted to open community formats including Ocean Data View ASCII and SeaDataNet NetCDF, with data described using terms from the NERC vocabulary server. BODC submission agreements are documented on the BODC website and customer service is assured with a dedicated requests team that serve data following local regulations including General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) 2018 and Environmental Information Regulations (EIR) 2004.
Pass
Yes
Statement
Instrument(s) used to collect data: sea level recorders.
File identifier
1b2bd71c32cc585e9081f91228fbfec3 XML
Metadata language
EnglishEnglish
Hierarchy level
dataset Dataset
Date stamp
2021-12-20T06:31:16
Metadata standard name
MEDIN
Metadata standard version
3.1.1
Point of contact
  British Oceanographic Data Centre - Elizabeth Bradshaw ( Marine Data Manager )
Joseph Proudman Building , 6 Brownlow Street , Liverpool , Merseyside , L3 5DA , United Kingdom
https://www.bodc.ac.uk/
 
 

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