Introduction

Part VI is the last of the three Parts of this volume which principally examine strategies and methods for reducing flood hazards and disasters. The chapters in this Part address a variety of ways in which flood hazard and disaster exposure and vulnerability may be reduced. Part VI begins by emphasising the need to regulate the use of floodplain land with contrasting examples from the United States, Malaysia and Argentina. Reducing vulnerability is a theme of growing prominence as we proceed through to Chapter 31, in which the focus is upon ways of increasing the resilience of Bangladeshi floodplain inhabitants to floods. Discussion of the need to involve local people and the public in decisions about flood hazard reduction strategies, in order to ensure that these strategies are effective, was a theme in Part IV (Chapters 19 and 20). This theme is picked up again in Chapter 31 in the context of Bangladesh, and subsequently further developed in Chapters 32 and 33 in the context of other countries.