Flood Estimation Handbook Web Service

1. Catchments and Points

What do I get when I buy a new catchment or point?

The Web Service provides data at a catchment or point scale. Our User Guide provides a full list of descriptors, rainfall rarity/depth data and data formats provided for catchments and points.

Once a catchment or point has been purchased it remains associated with your account granting you perpetual access to the data. Since the dataset is smaller, point data costs less than catchment data.

When purchasing a catchment or point you have the option to enter a tag; what is this for?
The tag field for each purchased catchment or point can, for example, be used for project/team codes. These will appear in the details on your purchased catchment or point, can be used to filter and export in My Data and is provided within the usage report an Individual User or the Lead Organisational User can download allowing credit expenditure to be costed to projects or teams.

2. FEH Methods

How can I get a copy of the Flood Estimation Handbook?

A free downloadable version is available:

What is the uncertainty in the FEH Methods?
A short guide has been prepared on the uncertainty in FEH methods.
What are the FEH22 and FEH13 rainfall DDF models?
The FEH22 rainfall model is the FEH’s latest UK-wide statistical model for rainfall depth-duration-frequency (DDF) estimation. It supersedes the FEH13 model and the legacy FEH99 model. Please see our User Guide for a summary of the FEH rainfall DDF models with associated references.

3. Purchasing Credits

What are the payment options?
The credit purchase process is the same for individual users and lead organisational users. Under your account click on the option 'Purchase Credit' and enter the amount you wish to purchase. A purchase of up to 1,000 credits can only be made via credit or debit card though our secure payment gateway. For orders over 1,000 credits you have the option to select 'Purchase Order' and payment can be made via bank transfer or cheque. You are given the option to enter a PO number and the system will then issue you a proforma invoice. Once payment is received credits will be allocated to your account and you will be notified via email.

Bulk credit purchases for 10,000 or above must be paid by purchase order.

Please see our User Guide for further details.

How much do credits cost?
Please visit the Pricing page.
I have placed an order via purchase order but realised that the details on my proforma invoice are incorrect
You will need to cancel the order via your account, place the order again with the correct details.
Can I get a refund?
We cannot offer a refund for any purchase made on The FEH Web Service. It has been designed specifically to provide users with as much contextual information as possible, including OS data and the defined catchment boundary, before committing to make a purchase to minimise the possibility of errors occurring. We do welcome feedback on the Service so if you have any suggestions for additional information that could have been supplied in order to avoid a purchase error in the future please let us know.
Do my credits expire?
Credits do not expire.

4. Individual Users

What is an individual user account?
As an individual user, you can buy and spend credits as you wish and you are not linked to other user accounts. To sign up as individual please register here.

5. Organisational Accounts

What is an organisational account?
Please see our User Guide for details of what an organisational account is, and details on the two types of Organisational users: lead user(s) and organisational users.
My company has an organisational account for the Web Service; how do I join it?
You will need to ask a lead user to invite you to join the organisational account.
How do I become a lead user of an existing organisational account?
You will need to ask the existing lead user(s) and they will invite you to become an additional lead user.
As lead user, how do I manage the users and their purchases in my organisation?
Please see our User Guide for details.
I am an existing user and I have been invited to join an organisational account. What will happen to my existing credit balance?
Your credits will be merged into a single organisational balance, and it will be the responsibility of the lead user to assign you a credit quota.
How are credits allocated under the organisational account?
The lead user assigns a credit quota to each user. Your balance of credits will be the quota amount.
How many credits does my organisation have?
The credit box in the top hand right corner of the page shows your organisation balance. Balances over 1000 are simply shown as 1000+. Lead users can see the exact amount via the "Your account → Manage organisation and users" menu
My quota is showing 0, how do I request more credits?
You will need to speak to your lead user(s) to request for more credits. The lead users' email are listed under Your Account → Profile, on the Overview tab.
My company has multiple organisational accounts; how do we merge them into one?
You will need to contact us to arrange for the accounts to be merged. Within your request please include as much information as possible including the name of each organisational account, the lead users and the lead user(s) you would like to be responsible for the new account.
I am an existing/new Web Service user; can I set up an organisational account with myself as the lead user?

Firstly please check with your organisation; if you find out an organisational account already exists please visit the FAQ:

Otherwise please contact us to set up a new organisational account.

6. Educational and Research Users

I am an educational or research user: what discounts apply?
A discounted rate is available for Educational and Research Use. Please visit the Educational and Research Use Section on the Pricing page for further information.

7. Map Layers

What are Peak Flow gauging stations, and the Suitable to QMED and Suitable for Pooling categories?
The NRFA Peak Flow Dataset provides peak flow data (Annual Maxima and Peaks over Threshold) for a sub-set of the NRFA gauging stations for which daily flow data are available. The indicative suitability for QMED and Pooling is assigned to each Peak Flow station and relates to the suitability for use within the FEH methods.
What is the ReFH gauging station category?
These are the gauging stations that were used in the development of the ReFH parameter equations, where multivariate regression analysis was used to relate the variation in calibrated model parameters (Tp, Cmax, BL and BR) between catchments to catchment descriptors. There are separate sets of parameter equations for Scotland and the group of England, Wales and Northern Ireland.

8. General

How do I report a problem, or ask for help?
Please see the Contact Us page.
What web browsers are supported?
We aim to support the newest versions of Microsoft Edge, Firefox and Chrome. Internet Explorer version 11 is no longer recommended. The Safari browser will prevent you from using the "Save map image" function. Older versions of Safari also have problems with data entry fields. If you have problems entering numeric values we recommend you switch to to one of the fully-supported browsers, above.

9. Known issues

How do I save an image of a catchment boundary?
There is a known issue where the screenshot function does not capture the catchment boundary, just the underlying maps. We are working to rectify this defect. As a workaround, use Windows Snipping Tool or equivalent screen capture tool to take a picture of your web browser window, and trim to size.

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