BGS GeoScour Open

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.

BGS GeoScour provides information for users on the natural characteristics and properties of catchment and riverine environments for the assessment of river scour in Great Britain.

This dataset

The GeoScour Open dataset comprises three different tiers of geographical information system (GIS) data containing seven different data layers. Each tier represents a different scale of assessment, from a high-level catchment through subcatchment data to detailed river-reach data. The datasets are polygon (area) layers and river lines, which are described using straightforward classifications and enabling a scour susceptibility assessment.

Tier 1 — catchment level

Tier 1 consists of one dataset: catchment stability (1:625 000 scale), which identifies and describes the relative catchment-scale characteristics in terms of landscape evolution, sediment availability and typical response in flood conditions.

Tier 2 — subcatchment level

Tier 2 consists of a suite of five subcatchment datasets (1:250 000 scale) including:

• catchment designated sites
• catchment flood accommodation
• catchment geological runoff potential
• catchment morphology
• catchment urban coverage

The catchment geological runoff potential and morphology layers provide the dominant geological runoff potential and morphology per catchment, respectively. The catchment designated sites, flood accommodation and urban coverage layers provide the percentage coverage of all protected sites (AWI, NNR, Ramsar, SAC, SPA and SSSI), flood accommodation space and small and large urban areas per catchment, respectively.

Tier 3 — riverine level

Tier 3 open consists of one layer at riverine level (1:50 000 scale): river geological properties.

This layer provides statistics on specific geological properties per river reach. The geological properties include superficial deposits vs bedrock, rocks strength, density and mineralogy. The statistics correspond to the percentage length of river reach for each different geological property encountered.