Oxfordshire Preliminary Flood Risk Assessment (PFRA)

The Preliminary Flood Risk Assessment (PFRA) provides a high-level summary of significant flood risk, based on available information, describing both the probability and consequences of past and future flooding. The report will help us develop our future strategy to manage local flooding in Oxfordshire.

The scope of the PFRA is to consider flooding from surface runoff, ground water and ordinary watercourses, and any interaction these sources have with main rivers. 

The methodology for producing it was based on the Environment Agency’s Final PFRA Guidance and Defra’s Guidance on selecting Flood Risk Areas, both published in December 2010. The Environment Agency's national methodology has been applied to assess significant flood risk for the European Community as a whole. This has been set out by Defra in order to identify indicative Flood Risk Areas across England.  

Flood Risk Areas in Oxfordshire

Throughout Oxfordshire there are locations at risk from flooding. However in terms of a European perspective, nowhere in Oxfordshire is considered to be a significant flood risk area.

A Flood Risk Area is a location where flooding is deemed significant (in a national context for reporting to Europe). The threshold for significance used to determine Flood Risk Areas has been set by the Minister, one of the indicators for this assignment being that 30,000 people could be affected by local flooding at a particular location.

This is not to say that localised flooding in Oxfordshire is insignificant. The flooding in June 2007 clearly highlighted how vulnerable our communities are to local flooding and the PFRA highlights that a large number of people could be affected by surface water flooding. As a consequence of this risk Oxfordshire County Council considers this threat to the health and wellbeing of these residents seriously. This will be considered as we develop our Local Flood Risk Management Strategy.

Preliminary Flood Risk Assessment documents

As a Lead Local Flood Authority (LLFA), we were required to submit our PFRA to the Environment Agency for approval by 22 June 2011.

• PFRA Preliminary Assessment Report (.pdf format, 1MB)

Maps

• 1: Past flooding – Surface water in July 2007 (.pdf format, 697Kb)
• 2: Past flooding – Surface water in other events (.pdf format, 643Kb)
• 3: Past flooding – Groundwater (.pdf format, 613Kb)
• 4: Past flooding – Canal flooding in July 2007 (.pdf format, 1.2MB)
• 5: Locally agreed surface water information (.pdf format, 2.7MB)
• 6a: People affected by flooding in a rainfall event with a 1 in 200 chance of occurring in any given year (.pdf format, 2MB)
• 6b: Critical services affected by flooding in a rainfall event with a 1 in 200 chance of occurring in any given year (.pdf format, 1.9MB)
• 6c: Non-residential properties affected by flooding in a rainfall event with a 1 in 200 chance of occurring in any given year (.pdf format, 2MB)
• 7: Areas susceptible to groundwater flooding (.pdf format, 2MB)
• B1: Planned capital schemes for 2011 (.pdf format, 1.5MB)

Local knowledge of past flooding is an important source of information which can tell us more about how accurate the flood mapping we hold is. If you have any questions about the PFRA mapping or have information about past flooding in the area please email  flooding.incidents@oxfordshire.gov.uk.

Flooding terms explained