Introduction

In this chapter, the book co-authors provide an overview to this groundbreaking book and describe the ways in which readers of the book—including planners, program implementers, policymakers, and academics—will gain insights and new tools to advance flood risk management, including risk assessment and green recovery planning across the Global South. The centerpiece of the book are the thirteen case study papers focused on Global South communities in Africa, South America, South and Southeast Asia and the Middle East focused on flooding cities and regions by authors who are in-country professionals from government agencies and NGOs. Chapters “ Climate Disaster Risk Management—Risk Assessment and Green Recovery Planning: Core Concepts and Identification of Current Issues ”–“ Overview and Exploration of Nature-Based Flooding Solutions: The Green Transition ”  review core concepts associated with flooding and climate-change driven disasters, climate risk assessment and green recovery principles, identifies new and emerging issues and solutions in flood risk management and presents a new Climate Risk Assessment and Green Recovery Planning framework and methodology created by Dr. Kwi-Gon Kim. In addition, Chaps. “ Leveraging Leading Edge Digital Models, Developed Under Urban Computing Principles, to Support Flood Risk Assessment in Cities ” and “ Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT) to Drive Flood Reduction Solution Markets and Financing ”,explore the role of technology to accelerate impact and scale and explores digitalization and next-gen technologies and solutions including AI, IoT, Distributed Ledger Technology, Digital Twins and the Metaverse. Chapters “ Case Study Findings and Synthesis of Learnings ”–“ Looking Forward: Building Vibrant, Climate Adaptive, and Resilient Cities and Communities ” provide an analysis of the thirteen case studies, features a new integrated framework for achieving adaptation and mitigation co-benefits, explores the power of community-led initiatives to drive transformational impact and shares summary insights and new directions from the editors.