Integration and goal-orientation in flood forecasting and warning

Developments and improvements in Flood Forecasting and Warning (FF&W) services depend on meeting end-users needs but this is a bottom-up regime, reciprocating the past topdown regimes. Each regime is individually insufficient and their integration is only feasible through systems science approaches, inevitably requiring a shift from the culture of economical viability and technical feasibility towards multiple drivers. This chapter outlines a systems science context of FF&W with an architecture for integrating end-user issues through (i) formulating goals, (H) reducing FF&W into processes and sub-processes and connecting them through clearly-defined interfaces; (W) understanding interconnectivity among the units of the processes leading to a diagnostic capability; (iv) building in feedback loops; and (v) placing in an organisational arrangement to ensure steady performance and adaptation.