Modern-day flood management has evolved into a variety of flood management alternatives. The selection of appropriate flood measures is crucial under a variety of flood management practices, approaches, and assessment criteria. Many leading countries appraise the significance of risk-based flood management, but the fixed return period is still the de facto standard of flood management practices. Several measures, approaches, and design criteria have been developed over time. Understanding their role, significance, and correlation toward risk-based flood management is crucial for integrating them into a plan for a floodplain. The direct impacts of a flood are caused by direct contact with the flood, while indirect impacts occur as a result of the interruptions and disruptions of the socio-economical aspects. To proceed with a risk-based flood management approach, the fundamental requirement is to understand the risk dynamics of a floodplain and to identify the principal parameter that should primarily be addressed so as to reduce the risk. Risk is a potential loss that may arise from a hazard. On the one hand, exposure and susceptibility of the vulnerable system, and on the other, the intensity and probability of the hazard, are the parameters that can be used to quantitatively determine risk. The selection of suitable measures for a flood management scheme requires a firm apprehension of the risk mechanism. Under socio-economic and environmental constraints, several measures can be employed at the catchments, channels, and floodplains. The effectiveness of flood measures depends on the floodplain characteristics and supporting measures.

Universities and higher education institutions play an important role in achieving a sustainable future through their teaching and by undertaking cutting edge research to combat climate change. There have been several efforts towards a sustainable future and achieving carbon neutrality at higher education institutions in Australia and around the world. This study has reviewed the sustainability strategies of numerous universities in Australia and has identified as study cases six universities that are committed to and leading the implementation of initiatives to achieve carbon neutrality. The initiatives implemented at the selected universities were classified into eight “sustainability categories”, namely, built environment, energy, food and gardens, GHG emissions, natural environment, resource and waste management, transport, and water. Among the selected leading universities in sustainability, Charles Sturt University and the University of Tasmania (UTAS) are the only universities in Australia certified as carbon neutral. An interesting aspect of this review is the way in which universities are implementing sustainability initiatives in line with their mission and strategies. Despite striving towards the same end goal of achieving carbon neutrality, different institutions offer individually unique approaches towards sustainability. For example, UTAS values the creation, expansion and dissemination of knowledge and the promotion of continual learning, which is clearly demonstrated through its initiatives and policies. The findings in this review are critical in identifying those institutions of higher education which are role models in their strong commitment to achieving carbon neutrality. Such role model universities can pave the way for similar climate action at other universities.

Managing and communicating flood risks necessitates a strong understanding of how people perceive risk. It has become critical to examine risk perception to implement effective disaster risk management (DRM) measures. Socioeconomic determinants have an impact on risk perception, which in turn affects future adaptive capacity and disaster preparedness. First and foremost, this research attempts to determine how Pakistani people in rural areas perceive flood risk, and second, to examine the factors that can influence rural residents’ perceptions of flood risk. The data for this study were collected through face-to-face interviews with 600 respondents (household heads) from Charsadda and Nowshera districts that were severely affected by the 2010 flood. A flood risk perception index was developed (using a risk matrix) using relevant attributes on a Likert scale and classified into two categories: high and low perceived risk. Furthermore, a binary regression model was used to examine the influence of socioeconomic and institutional factors on rural households’ risk perception. Flood risk was perceived by 67 percent of the total sampled participants in the study regions. The results of binary logistic regression demonstrate that flood risk perception is strongly linked to socioeconomic variables such as age, education, house ownership, family size, past flood experience, and distance from the nearest river source, as well as institutional factors such as access to credit and extreme weather forecast information. The findings of the current study additionally revealed that flood risk perception varied among household heads based on education (1–10 years perceived high flood risk (51.47%)), age (age greater than 40 years perceived high flood risk (52.83%)), and monthly income levels (lower monthly income group perceived high flood risk (73.02%)). The findings of this study shed light on rural households’ perception of flood risk and the factors that shape such perceptions. These findings can assist provincial and local disaster management authorities in better understanding flood risk and adopting local actions that could be used to respond to flood and other climate-related disasters.

Environmental sustainability is a major challenge for the governments of various countries. The industrial sector and the growth of startups have created a challenge for sustainable development, with little concept of innovativeness for environment sustainability. The current research aims to foster environmental sustainability by adopting sustainability innovation and environmental opinion leadership in the hospital industry. The adoption of sustainability innovation along with environmental opinion leadership in the hospital industry is rarely studied in the literature. Particularly, this concept is completely ignored in the context of Pakistan. Quantitative research approach is employed in this study. A survey instrument in form of a questionnaire was used to collect data from respondents. Respondents of the study were the employees working in public hospitals of Pakistan. Simple random sampling was employed for data collection. The data analysis was carried out by using partial least square-structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM). The findings of this study concluded that the role of trialability, innovativeness, compatibility, simplicity, and relative advantage must be considered when adopting sustainable innovation in hospitals. The practical and theoretical implications of this study are significant for the improvement of environmental sustainability in Pakistan.

In recent years, social vulnerability has gained much importance in academic studies. However, social indices are rarely combined and validated with exposure and resilience components. This study provides an integrated analysis of the flood exposure and social vulnerability of rural households in a case area of Charsadda District, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan. A conceptual framework was designed (based on the MOVE framework) as a guideline and key indicators were identified. For the exposure component, parameters such as elevation, flooded locations, and distance from the river were endorsed to understand flood mechanisms. For populating socioeconomic variables, questionnaire-based interviews were conducted with 210 households. The results were presented through ArcGIS-generated maps. The most significant indicators interplaying with high vulnerability were exposure-related indicators. The findings showed that the southern areas, including Agra, Daulat Pura, and Hisar Yasinzai were highly vulnerable due to having the highest number of flood locations, lowest elevations, and shortest distances from rivers, as well as larger household sizes, more elderly, children and women, illiteracy rates, and weak financial capacity. Understanding such dominant indicators and areas where high social vulnerability and high exposure converge can inform the authorities in mitigating both social and physical flood vulnerability.