Disaster management systems including information systems, differ in each jurisdiction as they are dependent on cultural context, available resources and disaster typology characteristics. As a result, developing knowledge and lessons learned in disaster management, to improve systems and processes is very difficult. By better understanding why systems and processes differ from jurisdiction to jurisdiction development of a body of knowledge for disaster systems and process improvement would become more achievable. To graphically highlight and learn from jurisdictional factors, we take a closer look at flood management practices (systems and processes) in China where there is a high incidence of flood disasters and significant death and damage at a far larger scale that that experienced in Australia. In China, flood preparation is based primarily on information systems predictive models to support critical hydraulic engineering decisions while response is mainly reliant on government resource allocation where the military become a key player
