EEA potential flood-prone area extent, Jan. 2020

The EEA potential flood prone area extent delineates the area that is flooded once every 100 years, i.e. the probability of flooding is 1% assuming that flooding is unrestricted. The potential flood prone area is comprised of the river channel and floodplain. In reality, the floodplain is split into an active floodplain where flooding still occurs, and former floodplain where flooding is restricted due to flood protection. The former floodplain could be flooded again either if a flood exceeds the capacity of flood protection, or if factors that control the presence of water were removed. These factors include channel and floodplain morphological alterations as well as structural flood protection measures. The spatial coverage of the data set is EEA39 countries.