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.

This dataset

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

Tier 1 — catchment level data

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 six subcatchment datasets (1:250 000 scale) including:

• catchment geological runoff potential
• catchment morphology
• catchment designated sites
• catchment flood accommodation
• catchment urban coverage
• catchment geological susceptibility layers including: (new in V2)
  • Catchment Average Surface Susceptibility
  • Catchment Best Surface Susceptibility
  • Catchment Worst Surface Susceptibility

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. The catchment geological susceptibility datasets provide average worst and best case scenarios and calculates the total length of river within each catchment for each scour susceptibility class.