Advances in Flood Risk Monitoring and Management for Environmental Sustainability

Dear Colleagues,

Climate change and rapid urbanization are reshaping flood regimes and challenging societal resilience. Climate change alters flood frequency, intensity, timing, and spatial distribution through intensified rainfall, shifting antecedent wetness, sea‑level rise, and a greater likelihood of compound events (e.g., floods with droughts or storm surges). At the same time, urbanization, characterized by expanding impervious surfaces, modified local climate and hydrology (e.g., urban heat islands), and demographic shifts, heightens societal exposure and vulnerability.

These interacting climatic and societal changes are placing growing pressure on existing flood‑risk management systems. Addressing them requires more effective, integrated monitoring and a broader, forward‑looking understanding of evolving risk. This includes advancing methods to monitoring and predicting flood risks (e.g., e.g., machine learning algorithms coupled with remote sensing, in situ sensors, and CCTV networks), recognizing shifting vulnerability due to aging populations, unequal access to resources and warnings, insufficiently designed or ageing infrastructure in flood‑prone zones, and understanding more flooding impacts on the environment like water‑quality changes. Such insights must inform adaptive management and decision‑making, enabling governance to respond to changing hazards and vulnerabilities while supporting broader environmental sustainability.

Accordingly, this Special Issue seeks innovative contributions that advance new frameworks for flood-risk monitoring and the management for environmental sustainability, including, but not limited to, the following directions:

1. Compound flood drivers and multi‑hazard interactions;
2. Social vulnerability and equity‑oriented risk assessment;
3. AI‑enhanced flood forecasting and multi‑source data fusion;
4. Big‑data‑driven mapping of exposure and post‑event impacts;
5. Sustainable flood risk management strategies like nature‑based solutions and green infrastructure;
6. Inclusive governance frameworks that prioritize environmental justice.

We look forward to receiving your contributions.

Dr. Wenyu Yang
Dr. Zhenyu Wang
Dr. Xiangyu Fan
Guest Editors

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