Directive 2007/60/EC requires every member state to produce flood hazard maps and flood risk maps for all areas identified as having potentially significant flood risk. The directive sets the framework, but the specific mapping standards, review authorities, and submission formats are implemented nationally — which means a package that satisfies one country's competent authority will not automatically satisfy another's.
For a developer operating across two or three EU jurisdictions, this creates a genuine trap: teams often assume the Directive itself is the standard to meet, when in practice it is closer to a shared vocabulary that each national authority has translated into its own dialect. Understanding which dialect applies to your site — before, not after, the modelling begins — is usually the difference between a smooth planning submission and a stalled one.
Flood hazard maps under the Directive must cover three probability classes — low (extreme events, ≥1 in 1000 years), medium (≥1 in 100 years), and high (where applicable) — each showing extent, depth or water level, and where relevant, flow velocity.
"The Floods Directive is a floor, not a ceiling — most national authorities build additional requirements on top of it."— HYDRisk Engineering Team
Preparing an EU flood risk submission?
We scope to the specific national authority's requirements from day one.
We confirm the competent authority and its specific mapping standard before scoping any European flood risk study, so the deliverable matches what will actually be reviewed.
HYDRisk delivers bankable flood risk assessments across the US, Europe, the Middle East and Asia.