A model is presented of liquid flow under gravity, over horizontal and sloping surfaces, based on the Shallow Water Equations. The aim is to facilitate assessment of the efficacy of bunds surrounding liquid storage tanks, in cases where the liquid front encountering the bund carries significant momentum. The model, called SPLOT, incorporates terms representing the effects of turbulent and laminar friction, and a sub-model for the effect of vertical walls. Having produced a robust numerical solution method, and verified its performance in cases where analytic solutions are known, it is the objective of this work to test the model's validity against experimental data on flows overtopping bunds. SPLOT is found to be very satisfactory in a wide range of circumstances involving both vertical and sloping bunds. Physical reasons are identified for the overly conservative predictions found in the remaining cases, and a simple parameter is derived which indicates whether the model is being used outside its range of optimum validity. Crown Copyright (C) 2010 Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.