As a Small Island Developing State (SIDS) in the Pacific, Samoa has been heavily impacted by increasingly severe tropical storms. Given the topography of the country, these extreme events have caused significant river discharge that results in flooding of lowland areas. Recent tropical storms like Cyclone Evan have caused floods resulting in serious health impacts and significant damage to both public and private assets. The resulting damages have been estimated at US $200 million. Urban infrastructure has suffered considerably and is expected to further degrade as extreme weather events are becoming more frequent. The objective of this project is to strengthen the adaptive capacity, and to reduce exposure to extreme weather events of vulnerable communities, infrastructure, and the built environment in the Vaisigano River Catchment area. This is the river that flows through the Apia Urban Area (AUA) The project represents the GoS's initial steps in operationalizing a comprehensive flood management solution and it promotes a paradigm shift through its integrated and holistic approach to both hard and soft flood protection of the Greater Apia Catchment, and specifically, the Vaisigano River through three inter-linked outputs:. (a) Assessments and mechanisms in place for an integrated approach to reduce vulnerability towards flood-related risks (b) Infrastructure in the Vaisigano River are flood-proofed to increase resilience to negative effects of excessive water (c) Drainage in downstream areas upgraded for increased regulation of water flows. In conjunction with GoS co-financing leveraged for this project, GCF resources will be used to address a number of key technical issues including infrastructure; capacity and information based barriers to enhancing the effectiveness of flood management systems. The primary direct beneficiaries include approximately 26,528 people in the Vaisigano river catchment area and 37,000 people indirect beneficiaries.