Review of challenges of and practices for sustainable management of mountain flood hazards

Mountain areas are the source of important cultural, ecological, and life-sustaining resources, but are also subject to devastating losses from floods. To work toward reducing these losses, this paper aims to (a) synthesize understanding on the elements that make flood risk management challenging in high mountain areas and (b) identify practices that can be applied in reducing the exposure and vulnerability of mountain communities. Through a review of the literature and case studies, we identified the flood-related challenges associated with complex topography and hydrogeology, insufficient data and infrastructure, weakly defined governance structures, and sensitivity to climatic and landscape changes. We examined five practices needed for reducing flood risk in these vulnerable areas, involving (1) the acquisition and effective dissemination of information about floods, (2) basin-scale hazard assessment and disaster response planning, (3) clearly defining governance responsibilities and distributing them across multiple jurisdictional layers, (4) implementing effective and diverse mitigation measures, and (5) training and engaging local residents and officials in flood risk reduction. Considerations and needs for implementing these practices in mountain areas are discussed, highlighting the commitment of resources needed for distributed governance, effective planning, land use and building regulations, and engagement of the public.