dataset · England
National LIDAR Programme
The Environment Agency National LIDAR Programme provides accurate elevation data at 1m spatial resolution for all of England. In 2017 we divided the country into 302 survey blocks covering all of England which were subsequently captured during the winter months (approximately November to April each year) between January 2017 and February 2023. These are known as our 'Phase 1' national lidar programme surveys. Subsequently we have undertaken repeat surveys of specific blocks based on the on-going
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Licence: ["There are no public access constraints to this data. Use of this data is subject to the licence identified.", "There are no public access constraints to this data. Use of this data is subject to the
Evidence quality: 71
Listed in data.gov.uk public catalogue API on 2026-10-16; relevance/value screened (haiku).
Metadata checked: 2026-10-14T13:20:00.000Z
What's in it
- Data offered docs-verified
- LIDAR point cloud (classified ground, low, medium and high vegetation) · DSM (last or only return) · DTM (ground-classified last return, manually filtered) · First return DSM (FZ DSM) · Intensity surface model · Survey index catalogue (tile metadata)
- Coverage docs-verified
- England · Phase 1 surveys captured January 2017 to February 2023; repeat surveys of specific blocks since then
- Resolution docs-verified
- 1 m spatial resolution
- Update frequency docs-verified
- Quarterly
- Formats docs-verified
- GeoTIFF · LAZ · Shapefile · GeoPackage · GeoJSON · File Geodatabase · WFS · WMS
- Access docs-verified
- Free, open access under the Open Government Licence; no public access constraints
Useful for
- Use cases llm-inferred
- Terrain (DTM) input for flood risk and hydraulic modelling of England · Surface baseline for earthworks and drainage design · Canopy height and building outline extraction using FZ DSM and DTM
- Audience llm-inferred
- flood consultants · drainage engineers · hydrologists · GIS analysts · civils engineers
Limitations
- Constraints llm-inferred
- England only · Survey dates vary by block (Phase 1 captured 2017 to 2023), so some tiles may be dated · Repeat surveys cover only specific blocks, not a rolling full recapture · Water bodies are filled in the DTM, so it is not a bathymetric surface · Tiles are 5 km OS grid; mosaicking needed for larger areas
Evidence
- https://environment.data.gov.uk/api/file/download?fileDataSetId=e4deae7f-b14e-4263-88d0-2a4ac0f50814&fileName=National_LIDAR_Programme.gdb.zip
- https://www.data.gov.uk/dataset/f0db0249-f17b-4036-9e65-309148c97ce4/national-lidar-programme
Check upstream coverage, uncertainty and licence before use. Station observations are not forecasts or design levels.