**1. Introduction**

Flood disaster management includes flood risk assessment, risk mitigation, preparedness, and emergency response and rehabilitation efforts. It can also be classified into before, during, and after event activities. A flood risk assessment is an assessment of the risk of flooding from all flooding mechanisms and consists of three components: (1) hazard identification, (2) vulnerability analysis, and (3) exposure assessment. Mathematically, it can be expressed:

$$\text{Risk} = \text{Hazzard} \times \text{Vulnerability} \times \text{Exposure} \tag{1}$$

According to UN-ISDR [1], hazard can be defined as a dangerous phenomenon, substance, human activity, or condition that may cause loss of life, injury or other health impacts, property damage, loss of livelihoods and services, social and economic disruption, or environmental damage. It can be quantified by a probability of occurrence within a specified period of time and within a given area and given intensity. The term exposure is used to indicate elements subject to potential damage due to a hazard. Elements here may be referred to population, houses, facilities, or physical and life infrastructure essential to the functioning of a society or community such as water supply system.

There are many aspects of vulnerability, related to physical, social, economic, and environmental conditions (see, for example, Birkmann [2]). Therefore, vulnerability can be defined in a number of different ways from as simple a notion as the degree of damage to an object exposed to a given hazard, to a more sophisticated one such as the characteristics and circumstances of a community, system, or asset

that make it susceptible to the damaging effects of a hazard. Thus, the choice of definition may depend on its suitability for a particular vulnerability study and its interpretation for policy or action. The fact that it can be approached in manifold ways offers both flexibility and difficulty to use and interpret.

Villagran de Leon proposed a different framework of risk, which consists of hazard, vulnerability, and deficiencies in preparedness [3]. Exposure was treated as a component of the hazard. The term "deficiencies in preparedness" was used to emphasize the lack of coping capacities of a society at risk. The pressure and release model [4] considers disaster as a product of two major forces: natural hazard and vulnerability. It was intended to stress the importance of vulnerability assessment.

No matter what framework one employs to deal with vulnerability and risk, the assessment should go beyond the identification of vulnerability and risk. It should probe into underlying driving forces and root causes in order to reduce or minimize them.

The objective of the present study is to highlight a number of shortcomings in conventional frameworks for flood risk management. A focal point is the framework for vulnerability.
