This paper explores community-based flood disaster risk governance by applying a sensemaking approach. The conceptual sensemaking framework consists of individual experience, dialogue, and socialization components, which together comprise an interconnected system. This study presents a method for applying this framework by using a concerns table and a SWOT analysis to examine the concerns of residents living in a flood plain. A series of community-based workshops on flood risk reduction was conducted with residents of the floodprone Muraida community in Shiga Prefecture, Japan. During the workshops, residents’ concerns regarding flood risk surfaced. This study used an idiographic approach to examine the proceedings of the workshops. SWOT issue analysis was used to examine the strengths and weaknesses in the Muraida community’s internal capacities, and examine the opportunities and threats in the external capacities (e.g., local government). Additionally, a SWOT strategy analysis was conducted to identify strategies for knowledge sharing and development of cooperative countermeasures that can be undertaken between the Muraida community and the local government. The results show that the concerns table can not only summarize the main concerns of all workshops, but also provide an understanding of alternative flood risk countermeasures that can be carried out.

This paper aims to explore the risk governance framework and socially viable solutions, attempting to provide guidance for the decision making process. The key idea of this study start with overcoming the limitations of IRGC risk governance framework, which mainly focuses on a comprehensive framework for risk governance. This article has employed SWOT analysis as a methodology, which is a strategic planning technique used to help identifying the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats related to business competition or risk management. In this paper, socially viable solutions as an alternative plan place emphasis on the adoption of concern assessment through a concerns table. It is also proposed that scoping has to get introduced, with SWOT analysis in the process. The results of this paper support that multiple stakeholders have to participate in the process of identifying and framing risk and communicating with each other, considering the context. It should be noted that communities can become involved and take important parts in decision making process in various ways. It is recommended that engaging stakeholders to both risk assessment and risk management is material to dealing with risk in a socially viable way. It also implies that the community-based disaster management should be better prepared for the decision making process in socially viable solutions.