Moving towards transilience: Rethinking the role of flood early warning systems in a changing world

This paper reviews resilience as the capacity to “bounce back” and introduce transilience as the capacity to “bounce forward” in the context of disaster risk reduction. The authors argue that Flood early warning systems (FEWS) can help flood-vulnerable communities innovate and find new opportunities to transform their flood risk management for the better (that is, transilience). Technological evolution, advancing flood monitoring and forecasting, creates opportunities for communities to improve the entire flood early warning value chain.

The authors use case studies to show how communities have leveraged technology to address changing flood impacts and reduce vulnerabilities that often precipitate or exacerbate flood disasters. We also review how global multi-hazard early warning initiatives and priorities increasingly reflect transilience. This perspective contributes to conversations about the importance of making communities central to FEWS design and using technology to better understand and meet community needs in disaster risk management.