There is increasing concern that the current management practices for many coastal regions are unsustainable. Very few countries have planned to deal with the exacerbation of problems of environmental decline in the face of climate change leading to more serious flood events caused by sea level rise, severe storms, tidal waves, etc. It is therefore necessary to assess socio-economic and environmental impacts of floods to better understand the vulnerability of the coastal zone, as part of devising adaptive and integrated management principles. The paper presents a systematic approach in which relevant stakeholders in five Asia-Pacific countries were actively engaged in identifying and prioritizing flood impact issues. Key issues of concern for flood impacts for coastal areas in Australia, Japan, Sri Lanka, Thailand and Viet Nam are compared.