Technology-Enabled Flood Disaster Management: Lessons from Malaysia and a Context-Aware Adaptation Framework for Sri Lanka

Abstract

Flooding remains one of the most recurrent and socio-economically damaging natural hazards in South and Southeast Asia. Sri Lanka experiences frequent flood events, particularly in low-lying urban regions such as Colombo, where flood risk is intensified by wetland encroachment, drainage limitations, and fragmented institutional responsibilities. Malaysia, which faces similar monsoonal flood patterns, has developed comparatively mature flood disaster management practices integrating early warning systems, centralized coordination, and technologyenabled decision support. This paper presents a practitioneroriented and technology-focused comparative analysis of flood disaster management approaches in Malaysia and Sri Lanka. Governance structures, early warning mechanisms, data integration, infrastructure maintenance, and public communication strategies are examined. Based on documented practices and limitations, the study extracts transferable lessons and proposes a multi-layered, technology-enabled adaptation framework tailored to Sri Lanka. The framework emphasizes decision support systems, real-time data integration, and community-aware communication mechanisms to enhance preparedness and response capabilities.