Datasets

The aquifer designation dataset reflects the importance of aquifers in England and Wales as a resource and their role in supporting surface water flows and wetland ecosystems.

• Open / Premium
• 1:50 000
• England and Wales

BGS Civils is a suite of national maps of engineering properties based on geological data and the digital 1:50 000 scale geological map – BGS Geology 50k.

• Premium
• 1:50 000
• Great Britain

The BGS corrosivity dataset is a GIS layer supporting the management of underground iron assets that has been created in response to the growing awareness of the cost of maintenance of structures such as pipelines and building foundations.

• Premium
• 1:50 000
• Great Britain

This theme provides information on the discontinuities in bedrock and superficial deposits as part of a suite of GIS layers for different engineering parameters.

• Premium
• 1:50 000
• Great Britain

This theme provides information on the suitability of a geological material to be used as engineered fill.

• Premium
• 1:50 000
• Great Britain

This theme provides information on the excavatability of geological deposits at surface.

• Premium
• 1:50 000
• Great Britain

This theme provides information on the suitability of a geological material for foundations as part of a suite of GIS layers for different engineering parameters.

• Premium
• 1:50 000
• Great Britain

This theme provides information on zones of rock strength and the local factors controlling it, as part of a suite of GIS layers for different engineering parameters.

• Premium
• 1:50 000
• Great Britain

The BGS Civils: sulfates and sulfides dataset is a GIS layer that supports the management of underground assets

• Premium
• 1:50 000
• Great Britain

The BGS Geology datasets are digital geological maps of Great Britain based on the different series of published BGS geological maps.

Our most detailed dataset is provided at 1:10 000 and 1:25 000 scale. This digital geological data is based on BGS’s highest-resolution survey mapping. Many urban centres and transport routes are covered by this dataset. Lithostratigraphic nomenclature is updated to current usage.

• Premium
• 1:10 000 – 1:25 000
• Partial Great Britain coverage

This generalised digital geological data is based on our 1:250 000-scale, bedrock-only maps. Data and lithostratigraphic re-classifications are derived from maps published between 1977 and 1993.

• Premium
• 1:250 000
• Great Britain

This generalised digital geological data is based on BGS’s 1:50 000 and 1:63 360-scale maps. Covering almost all of Great Britain, it provides a detailed local to regional description of geology and underpins many of our national map services and products. Lithostratigraphic nomenclature is updated to current usage.

• Open / Premium
• 1:50 000
• Most of Great Britain

This generalised digital geological dataset is based on our published ‘poster’ maps of the UK (north and south). This dataset covers all of Great Britain and includes additional map data from Northern Ireland. It provides an excellent national overview of the UK’s geology and is commonly used as a teaching resource.

• Open
• 1:625 000
• Great Britain and Northern Ireland

The BGS GeoScour Open datasets provide a generalised overview of the natural characteristics and properties of catchment and riverine environments for the assessment of river scour in Great Britain.

• Open
• Tier 1: 1:625 000
  Tier 2: 1:250 000
• Great Britain

The BGS GeoScour datasets provide a generalised overview of the natural characteristics and properties of catchment and riverine environments for the assessment of river scour in Great Britain.

• Open / Premium
• Tier 1: 1:625 000
  Tier 2: 1:250 000
  Tier 3: 1:50 000
• Great Britain

The BGS GeoSure datasets identify areas of potential hazard and, therefore, potential natural ground movement, in Great Britain.

• Premium
• 1:50 000
• Great Britain

The BGS GeoSure 5 km hex grid datasets provide a generalised overview of the susceptibility to six naturally occurring geohazards in Great Britain.

• Open
• 5 km hex grid (approx. 1:5 000 000)
• Great Britain

The potential for collapsible ground to be a hazard has been assessed using 1:50 000 scale digital maps of superficial deposits.

• Premium
• 1:50 000
• Great Britain

The potential for compressible ground to be a hazard has been assessed using 1:50 000-scale digital maps of superficial and bedrock deposits.

• Premium
• 1:50 000
• Great Britain

The Debris Flow landslide layer provides information on the potential of the ground, at a given location, to form a debris flow. It is based on a combination of digital geological, hydrogeological and topographic data.

• Premium
• 1:50 000
• Great Britain

The potential for landsliding (slope instability) to be a hazard has been assessed using 1:50 000 scale digital maps of superficial and bedrock deposits. These have been combined with information from the BGS National Landslide Database and scientific and engineering reports.

• Premium
• 1:50 000
• Great Britain

The potential for running sand to be a hazard has been assessed using 1:50 000-scale digital maps of superficial and bedrock deposits.

• Premium
• 1:50 000
• Great Britain

Many soils contain clay minerals that absorb water when wet (making them swell), and lose water as they dry (making them shrink). Many of us see this in our gardens when the ground becomes cracked during the summer, yet becomes ‘heavy’ in the winter.

• Premium
• 1:50 000
• Great Britain

The shrink–swell 3D data is a regional hazard susceptibility map that identifies areas of potential shrink–swell hazard in 3D at intervals down to 20 m in the London and Thames Valley area.

• Premium
• 1:50 000
• London and Thames Valley

This is a single data layer that identifies areas of potential shrink–swell hazard that are underneath another solid formation and therefore hidden from the surface.

• Premium
• 1:625 000
• Great Britain

Ground dissolution occurs when water passing through soluble rocks produces underground cavities and cave systems. These cavities reduce support to the ground above and can cause localised collapse of the overlying rocks and deposits.

• Premium
• 1:50 000
• Great Britain

Data outputs from 3D geological framework models are available at three different scales for parts of the onshore area of Great Britain.

• Open / Premium
• Varied
• Great Britain (partial coverage)

The National Landslide Database is the most extensive source of information on landslides in Great Britain with over 17 000 records.

• Open / Premium
• Great Britain

The BGS Predictive Seabed_Sediments (UK) data provide digital maps of seabed sediment (SBS) composition across the UK Continental Shelf (UKCS).

• Open
• Approximately 110m spatial resolution
• UK Continental Shelf (UKCS)

This theme provides information on the electrical resistivity of a geological material, to be used where the earthing characteristics of the ground are required.

• Premium
• 1:50 000
• Great Britain

The seabed geology map dataset covers regions on the UK’s continental shelf and details the substrate geology, structural geology and seabed geomorphology.

• Open
• 1:10 000 – 1:50 000
• Regional

The Biosphere Isotope Domains GB (Version 2) data comprises analysis and location-specific information for strontium, sulphur, lead and oxygen (from drinking water and tooth enamel) isotope variation for Great Britain.

• Open
• The dataset is represented by 1 km hexagon cells
• Great Britain

BGS is engaged in surveying the country for former mineral sites due to their importance for planning purposes and as potential sources of currently scarce resources such as building stone, in addition to hazard checking.

• Open / Premium
• Great Britain, Northern Ireland, Isle of Man and Channel Islands

Buried valleys are ancient river or subglacial (beneath a glacier) drainage networks that are now abandoned and have become either partly or completely buried by more recent sediment.

• Open
• 1:250 000
• Great Britain

This data is the original digital data for seismic reflection surveys conducted by the National Coal Board (NCB) and its successor, British Coal Corporation (BCC).

• Premium
• N/A
• Various areas in the UK

A series of maps showing the potential of the UK onshore coal resources for exploitation by conventional and new technologies.

• Open
• 1:1 000 000
• UK

The BGS depth to groundwater product is a national scale dataset of probable maximum depth to the phreatic water table.

• Premium
• 1:50 000
• Great Britain

G-BASE is a major BGS project that surveyed the surface geochemistry of the entire UK. Soil and stream-sediment geochemistry data is available for south-west England as a standalone dataset.

• Open
• SW England

BGS has developed a suite of products, including maps and data, which show potential change in subsidence due to UKCP climate change scenarios

Based on medium emissions scenario, provides the most susceptible value for the time periods 2030s, 2050s and 2080s within the grid cell.

• Open
• 2 km gridded dataset
• Great Britain

Based on medium emissions scenario, provides five levels of susceptibility for average, wetter and drier climate conditions for the time-period envelopes of 2020, 2030, 2040, 2050 and 2080 at the 1:50 000 area polygons scale.

• Premium
• Quasi-1:50 000
• Great Britain

Based on higher emissions scenario, provides the most susceptible value for the time periods 2030s and 2070s within the grid cell.

• Open
• 2km gridded dataset
• Great Britain

Based on higher emissions scenario, provides five levels of susceptibility for average, wetter and drier climate conditions for the time periods 2030s and 2070s at the 1:50 000 area polygons scale.

• Premium
• Quasi-1:50 000
• Great Britain

GeoCoast Open provides a range of historic images and diagrams extracted from our archives, memoirs and other publications, which can provide a reference for coastal change.

• Open
• Multiple
• Great Britain

GeoCoast is an integrated GIS package of datasets designed to inform and support coastal management and adaptation.

• Premium
• 1:50 000
• Great Britain

BGS has produced the geological indicators of flooding dataset from geological maps detailing the floodplains and coastal plains in Britain.

• Premium
• 1:50 000
• Great Britain

We hold a large archive of digital geophysical downhole log data from boreholes distributed across the UK.

• Premium
• Various areas in the UK

This product provides an index-level assessment of the potential for financial insurance loss due to natural ground movement.

• via BGS Data Resellers
• 1:50 000
• Great Britain

Regional aeromagnetic data for Great Britain acquired between 1955 and 1965.

• Open
• Mostly at 2 km flight line separation 400 m in South West England
• Onshore GB and adjacent seas

The Great Britain land gravity survey dataset comprises over 165 000 gravity observations across onshore Great Britain.

• Open
• Approximately one observation per 1.6 km²
• Onshore Great Britain

In response to the need for more information on groundwater flooding, BGS has produced the first national dataset on the susceptibility across Britain.

• Premium
• 1:50 000
• Great Britain

Our groundwater vulnerability maps provide an assessment of the vulnerability of groundwater in overlying superficial rocks and those that comprise the underlying bedrock.

• Premium
• 1:50 000
• England and Wales

This Hi-Res survey data comprise multi-channel gamma ray spectrometer, magnetometer and dual frequency VLF-EM, of the North Midlands.

• Open
• 400 m flight line separation
• North Midlands of England into Welsh Borderland

This dataset contains hand-drawn boundaries showing mineral related planning permissions and land use collated from the 1940s to the mid 1980s.

• Premium
• 1:50 000
• England and Wales

This ‘oilfield in a box’ dataset contains all of the raw data available from the Hutton hydrocarbon field in the North Sea.

• Open
• The Hutton Field, East Shetlands Basin

The BGS has produced a suite of hydrogeological maps of Scotland. The suite includes layers with groundwater vulnerability and aquifer productivity data.

• Premium
• 1:100 000
• Scotland

The hydrogeological map indicates aquifer potential in generalised term.

• Open
• 1:625 000
• UK

Radon is a natural radioactive gas, which enters buildings from the ground. Exposure to high concentrations increases the risk of lung cancer.

• Open
• 1 km grid size (approx. 1:1 000 000)
• Great Britain and Northern Ireland

The BGS Infiltration SuDS map dataset is suitable for those involved in the design of sustainable drainage systems and approving SuDS planning applications.

• Premium
• 1:50 000
• Great Britain

London Earth is the systematic, high-density, geochemical soil dataset of the Greater London Area (GLA) aiming to give insight into the environmental impacts of urbanisation and industrialisation on the UK’s most populous city.

• Premium
• Greater London and surrounding area

218 760 line-kilometres of ship-borne gravity survey data that the BGS acquired on the UK continental shelf between 1968 and 1990.

• Premium
• N/A
• UK continental shelf

204 724 line-kilometres of offshore ship-borne magnetic survey data that the BGS acquired on the UK continental shelf between 1967 and 1994.

• Premium
• N/A
• UK continental shelf

This dataset contains the geological distribution of all onshore mineral resources.

• Premium
• 1:50 000
• England, Wales, central belt of Scotland

This dataset provides a generalised overview of the likelihood for mining to have occurred.

• Open
• 1 km hex grid (approx. 1:1 000 000)
• Great Britain

The mining hazard dataset provides essential information for planners and developers building in areas of former shallow underground mine workings.

• Premium
• 1:50 000
• Great Britain

The BGS Offshore Bedrock 250k dataset depicts the distribution of the different types of bedrock on the UK Continental Shelf.

• Open
• 1:250 000
• UK and adjacent European waters

The 1:250 000-scale offshore geological map for quaternary geology (BGS Geology: marine quaternary 250k) is available digitally.

• Open
• 1:250 000
• UK and adjacent European waters

Permeability data is often used in studies of groundwater. Our permeability information is based on BGS Geology 50K data.

• Premium
• 1:50 000
• Great Britain

The BGS property subsidence assessment dataset uses a combination of best available geology, tree location and property information to provide property- and postcode-specific information on ground movement across England and Wales.

• via BGS Data Resellers
• PSA buildings: 1:50 000; PSA postcodes
• Great Britain

The radon potential dataset is the definitive map of radon-affected areas in Great Britain and Northern Ireland, created jointly by UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) and the BGS.

• Premium
• 1:50 000
• Great Britain and Northern Ireland

This offshore Quaternary geology dataset shows the distribution of interpreted lithostratigraphical units within the shallow subsurface. The dataset represents the Quaternary geology immediately beneath the active seabed sediment layer.

• Open
• 1:250 000
• UK and adjacent European waters

SOBI has over one million records of boreholes, shafts and wells from all forms of drilling and site investigation work.

• Open
• Great Britain

This dataset contains estimated ambient background concentrations of potentially harmful elements for rural and selected urban topsoils.

• Premium
• 1:50 000 (or as defined below)
• Great Britain

Frequenty asked questions for the BGS Soil Chemistry for environmental assessments dataset.

The Soil Parent Material Model details the distribution of properties of the weathered and unweathered soil parent materials of Great Britain.

• Premium
• 1:50 000
• Great Britain

• Open / Premium
• Partial Great Britain coverage: south-west England

The BGS superficial thickness hex grid map shows the variation of the thickness of superficial deposits across Great Britain.

• Open
• 1 km hex grid (approx. 1:1 000 000)
• Great Britain

The superficial thickness model shows the depth of the bedrock surface below unconsolidated deposits

• Premium
• 1:50 000
• Great Britain

Total organic carbon is a measure of the weight per cent of organic carbon within hydrocarbon source rocks. This dataset is derived from borehole analysis.

• Premium
• Great Britain

The British Geological Survey (BGS) has one of the largest databases in the world on the production and trade of minerals.

• Open
• Worldwide

Digital aeromagnetic surveys carried out by Hunting Geology and Geophysics Ltd over the UK Atlantic margin in the 1970s and early 1980s.

• Premium
• Flight line varies between surveys but many at 2 km
• UK Atlantic margin

The UK stream sediment geochemistry maps present data compiled from the G-BASE and TellusNI geochemical projects.

• Open / Premium
• Great Britain and Northern Ireland

The UK Compiled Topsoil Dataset (UKTS), is the most extensive topsoil geochemistry dataset for the UK.

• Open / Premium
• Partial UK Coverage

A national-scale network of intersecting cross-sections providing a unique visualisation of the complex rocks and structures that make up the UK landmass.

• Open
• 1:625 000
• UK

BGS vitrinite reflectance data derived from borehole analysis. Vitrinite reflectance data tells us the maximum temperature history of a sediment.

• Premium
• Great Britain

Our digital version of the water well archive. Index level data is available for all water boreholes known to the BGS.

• Open / Premium
• Great Britain