A long-term project has been initiated aimed at establishing a regional flood information system to reduce flood vulnerability and minimise the negative impacts of floods in the Hindu Kush-Himalayas and its downstream plains areas. This book presents the outcomes of the most recent meeting held in March 2003 in Kathmandu, Nepal -- organised by ICIMOD and WMO, co-hosted by Nepal’s Department of Hydrology and Meteorology (DHM), and co-sponsored by the USDS Regional Environment Office for South Asia, and the USAID Office of Foreign Disaster Assistance. The main volume provides background information on the project, short summaries of the presentations at the technical conference that preceded the meeting, and a brief account of the presentations and the results of the discussions of the draft project document and issues related to the project implementation. The action plan is presented in the Annexes together with background material gathered from the preceding meetings and consultations. The twelve technical presentations by international and regional technical experts on flood forecasting and information exchange papers are published in full in the supplementary volume.