Flooding frequently asked questions

Floodline in Scotland is operated by the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA). It provides live flooding information and advice on how to prepare for or cope with the impacts of flooding 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

Our telephone service and website can be accessed by everyone, but by registering with us you can receive free flood messages for your area of interest direct to your phone. These can be received by either text message, phone call or email.

Floodline provides live information and advice so you can take action to protect and prepare yourself and your home in advance of flooding, reducing its damage and disruption on your life.

Even if your property is not at risk of flooding, local roads and transport networks could be affected, restricting your ability to get to work, schools or essential facilities.

You can sign up to floodline for free and it only takes a few minutes.

A flood alert is an early indication of potential flooding from rivers, the sea and surface water. It is issued for larger geographical areas – usually the boundaries of local authorities.

If a flood alert is issued for your area, you should remain alert and vigilant and make early preparations for potential flooding.

Flood warnings advise that flooding is imminent. Immediate action is required – take measures to protect yourself and your property.

Our flood monitoring scheme issues targeted flood warnings for properties located in affected areas if the residents are signed up. The inclusion of any property within a flood warning area does not specifically imply that the individual property is at risk of flooding, but helps to identify the area at risk.

When you register, MyFloodline will check your address to see if you can receive Flood Warnings for your local area. Even if your property is not within a Flood Warning area, you will be shown the nearest Flood Warnings that are available.

Yes – you can either sign up using a postcode, or search by town/city to find flood warnings that are available. MyFloodline doesn't have a limit to the number of warning areas you can have on your account.

Yes – search by the postcode or by town/city of the workplace or school. MyFloodline will check to see what service is available in that area and provide a list of the nearest warning areas.

You can add several contact numbers to your account when you sign up to the MyFloodline service. All contact numbers will be attempted at the same time. You are able to add up to three telephone numbers, three text messages and three email addresses.

If you don't answer the phone a voicemail will be left, or if text messages can't be delivered, the system will retry the contact channels after five minutes, up to a maximum of three times. An answering phone service will be treated as a delivered message.

Due to the nature of flood alerts and flood warnings, messages are only useful if they can be received and read quickly.

With emails we cannot guarantee that they have been received and read so delivering our messages through phone and text message provides more certainty that they will be received in a timely manner.

More details about the warning message is given in either the email (if you have opted to receive warnings via email or by either viewing the message on our website (a quick link is provided in the text message) or by calling Floodline on 0345 988 1188. If you call from your registered telephone number, you should be taken directly to the detailed information for your area.

If calling from an unregistered phone, simply enter your quick dial code or codes to access the specific information for your area. You can view our live flood updates online or visit our mobile website.

You can find out your quick dial code or codes online or by calling Floodline on 0345 988 1188.

The cost of calling Floodline varies depending on your service provider, your call package and whether a landline or mobile is used.

All public bodies are encouraged to use 03 numbers, which are charged at the same rate as calls to 01 and 02 geographical numbers and must be included within free call bundles in phone packages.

SEPA works in partnership with the Met Office through the Scottish Flood Forecasting Service to generate data 24 hours a day.

This helps us to predict the likelihood and timing of river, coastal and surface water flooding.

It is our service that issues flood messages direct to customers phones. We have just updated the online portal and made it easier to register and manage your account details online.

You can login at MyFloodline.sepa.scot/login.

Your email address is normally your username. If you can't remember your password that you registered with you can reset your password.

If your email isn't registered or you no longer have access to the email registered you will need to contact us either on 0345 988 1188 selection option 2, then option 3 and a customer service agent can find your account and update your email address (available 24/7) or you can email us.

If you are registered to receive flood messages online you can now view and edit all aspects of your account.

If you know your username you can:

• Add or remove warning or alert areas.
• Edit your email address/password/name.
• Add or remove your contact details.
• Deregister from the service.

If you didn't provide an email address when you registered for the service, or you have changed your email address sine you registered then you will need to contact us so the account can be updated with the correct email address.

You can do this by calling Floodline on 0345 988 1188 selecting option 2 then option 3 - you will need to give the customer advisor some details and confirm the contact number on which you get flood messages. The agent will update the username and any other details you need updating. With the correct email you will then be able to reset the password so you can manage the account in the future.

Alternatively, you can email us but this may delay the change being made. Please ensue you provide the registered name and the number that you currently receive flood messages on. You will receive an email once the email address has been added to the account. You then need to use the reset password facility to set a password.

As the contacts are all tried at the same time it was deemed that three contact of each type allows customers to have enough channels. By limiting the number, we are also reducing the costs of running the system.

When you change your username, it invalidates the password. You should receive an account update email this confirm the updated email. Please then select forgotten your password to reset your password. You may need to check your spam or junk folder for the reset password email.

If you continue to have difficulties, please contact us on 0345 988 1188 select option 2, then option 3 and a customer service agent can find your account and check/update your email address (available 24/7). Alternatively, you can email us.

Our address data is taken from OS database and if your address is new or has a new postcode it may not have been updated yet. You can still register for flood messages - use the search town/city option and type in the town. A list of all the nearest flood warning areas appear you can click on the maps to see the area each covers and decide which you want to receive.

Flooding occurs most commonly from heavy rainfall. When the ground is saturated, water runs off the land and into water courses which increase a river's flow and level. When a river can’t cope with more water, flooding happens.

Flooding also happens along our coastlines when there are storm surges associated with a high tide coinciding with higher than normal river levels or from surface water.

We can’t predict flooding from drains and sewers. However, we have produced a national surface water flood map to help you identify if your area is at risk from the combination of flooding from rainfall and overwhelmed drainage systems.

Our flood maps don’t show individual properties, but they can tell you if your area is at risk of flooding.

If you live or travel through an area at risk of flooding, you can be impacted by flooding such as closed roads, school closures or disruption to community services.

Your local council is responsible for the construction and maintenance of any flood defences in your area. If you would like to know what flood defences there are in your local area, contact your local authority directly.

More information on the responsibilities of each organisations is available of the responsibilities for flooding page.

The Scottish Flood Forum provides information on flood protection products.

The Scottish Flood Forum (SFF) advises that traditional sandbags have many limitations:

• They may not hold back water unless a waterproof sheet is placed under them.
• They can be expensive, heavy, difficult to transport and labour intensive to assemble into flood defence barriers.
• They are prone to leakage, rot very quickly after use and contain viral and bacterial infections often present in flood water.
• They require proper environmental disposal.

Alternative products, such as barriers, often provide more effective long term protection, are more easily deployed and have greater reliability when fitted correctly. Find out more information about flood protection products.

Please note that some insurers may require flood defence products to be industry-approved and certified.

Visit Floodline or phone 0345 988 1188 to get advice on how to be prepare for or deal with flooding.

The Scottish Flood Forum also offers independent advice to communities who have been affected from flooding.

Unfortunately SEPA is currently unable to support the development of bespoke data licences for academic use.

This is a short term position pending the licensing of data directly to Edina which will therefore increase the availability of SEPA data to our academic audience in the future.

Insurance companies use commercial data providers to supply risk indicator datasets for a range of factors, not just flood risk. These datasets are not publicly available. As the published SEPA Flood Hazard maps are available under Open Government Licence, there are no restrictions on their commercial use. It is, therefore, possible that insurance companies may also use our flood maps to help determine insurance premiums.

However, they have not been explicitly designed for this purpose as they represent the risk of flooding to an area, rather than to individual property. Insurance companies have their own processes for assessing flood risk when setting premiums. These may include indicators such as distance from a watercourse and history of previous flooding claims in an area. They review these processes periodically.

These decisions are not publicly available and SEPA has no input into them.

Further information on how to cut the cost of home insurance can be found through the Association of British Insurers (ABI). 

​If you can demonstrate that you have taken steps to minimise potential flood damage (for example, by installing property flood resilience measures), then insurers may take this into consideration when calculating risk. 

​If you are finding it difficult to access specialist flood insurance, the British Insurance Brokers’ Association (BIBA), ABI, and Flood Re have collectively created a directory of flood insurance specialists. 

​If you feel that you have been treated unfairly by your insurer, you can first raise this with the insurer through their complaints process. Should the outcome of this be unsatisfactory, you can contact the Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS), who are an impartial adjudicator that has the legal power to award redress when someone has been treated unfairly and can arbitrate on cases. The FOS can also be contacted on 0800 023 4567. 

​Flood Re is a joint government and insurance industry initiative created to help provide affordable insurance to those households at highest risk of flooding. 

​The Scottish Flood Forum can also provide advice on finding insurance. 

We do not issue flood risk reports for properties.

If you wish to develop an area of land, you may have to submit a flood risk assessment – the planning section of our website provides more information on the planning process and flooding.

Affordable home insurance for eligible properties which are at risk of flooding is now available through Flood Re. Flood Re is a joint government and insurance industry initiative which was launch in April 2016.

Across the strategies there are 42 prioritised flood protection schemes or engineering works. The schemes will contribute to reducing flood risk within a number of communities. The development and delivery of the proposed flood protection schemes are however dependent on receipt of funding and resources available. We have collated the list of prioritised flood protection schemes for ease of viewing.