JCE_V2_N1_Rev1 Aurag Aeron R.D. Garg D.S. Arya S.P. Aggarwal Journal on Civil Engineering 2249 - 0779 2 1 40 49 Flood Forecasting, Flood Risk Analysis, Remote Sensing, GIS, Decision Support System, Satellite Data, Digital Elevation Model, Flood Loss Evaluation, Hydrological, Meteorological, Spatial Analysis Floods have the greatest damage potential of all natural disasters worldwide and affect the largest number of people. Plans and efforts must be undertaken to move from post-disaster response to disaster mitigation. More than ever, there is the need for decision makers to adopt holistic approaches for flood disaster mitigation and management. It is recognized that comprehensive assessments of risks from natural hazards, are needed. Assessment of risk and the involvement of the community in the decision making, planning and implementation process can help to obtain sustainable solutions. Solutions must reflect the human dimension and must also consider the impacts of changing land use on flooding, erosion, and landslides. Implementation will only be sustainable if solutions are suitable for the community at risk, over the long term. Different country uses different policies and methods for minimizing vulnerabilities and adverse impacts of hazards to facilitate sustainable development. In this paper, the high risk and socio-economical loss due to flood is discussed. Various concepts and methods are presented by different researchers to mitigate the effect of floods. Remote Sensing, GIS, Google Earth and various new software and technologies are being used for flood forecasting and flood risk analysis. A brief review of few methods are presented in this paper. After a critical analysis it can be concluded that a highly integrated system is required for forecasting the floods. It should integrate geomorphological, hydrological, meteorological, and socioeconomic aspects to provide more accurate and effective results for decision making. It requires coordination across many agencies at national to community levels for the system to work. Therefore it is clear that efficient disaster mitigation system is rigorously required to minimize the social and financial loss. In current scenario various new technologies and equipments are used to forecast and mitigate the disaster effects. December 2011 - February 2012 Copyright © 2012 i-manager publications. All rights reserved. i-manager Publications http://www.imanagerpublications.com/Article.aspx?ArticleId=1755