Nepal, May 18 -- According to a regional climate forecast, this year's monsoon will likely be above-normal, meaning we will face an increased risk of extreme events. Although the government of Nepal has yet to downscale the prediction, the forecast will, in theory, help national authorities formulate strategies and plan for disaster responses in advance.

Most of our disaster responses in the past focused on rescue and relief operations and not much on reducing the anticipated risks, except for limited early warnings in case of floods to minimise imminent deaths. Emerging weather patterns now require the development of opportunity-leveraging strategies to avert these risks. Given how monsoon-related disasters have intensified in recent ye...