Asia and the Pacific face increasing risks from water-related disasters such as floods, droughts, rainstorms, storm surge, and landslides. Increasingly frequent and severe floods, combined with rapid economic growth and urbanization along rivers and in coastal areas, have caused significant loss of life and damage. In 2016 alone, Asia reported $87 billion in losses from disasters, of which about 25% was flood-related. Asia and the Pacific experienced over 5,000 deaths from floods and storms in 2017. 

The scale of flood risk in many countries is now so great that no single individual solution, such as the erection of a flood wall, will provide a sustainable level of resilience. Furthermore, single-solution approaches can also be very damaging and counter-productive with respect to long term flood risk and they often only benefit the few. It is now widely accepted that the development of sustainable, long-term flood resilience requires a management strategy that incorporates and combines a whole range of solutions (e.g. social, economic, financial, environmental, and institutional aspects, as well as engineering, disaster preparedness, insurance, and emergency response requirements). This "many baskets, many eggs" approach is generally the only way to manage flood risk in highly vulnerable countries, especially as climate change evolves. 

This workshop brought together 35 flood professionals from ADB's DMCs to discuss issues for Integrated Flood Risk Management (IFRM). Presenters focused on how IFRM can be implemented, while discussions included generalized approaches to flood management, nature-based solutions, insurance, urban planning, and economic analysis.