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Without power and political authority, planning theorists' advice for planners to be politically astute is of little help. The politically astute planners could do little in the face of political pressure. In this context, the logical advice for planners would be to join politics and acquire the political authority that they need to materialize their plans. This article, through case studies from the United States, Brazil, and Nepal, shows that the planners who joined politics were able to accomplish some of the most difficult planning tasks in their towns and suggests that planners should take up elected position as and when possible.

Purpose This paper has carried out a case study of two flood-prone towns in Johor state, Malaysia, to understand how resilient the residents and local authorities were in dealing with the flood disasters in terms of their ability to anticipate, mobilize institutional resources, adapt and respond. Design/methodology/approach This research conducted semi-structured interviews with flood-affected residents, flood disaster managers and planners, and assessed land use regulations and institutional strengths to answer the research question. Findings The results showed that the residents’ anticipatory capacity to flood risks was weak and both the human and institutional resources were insufficient in coping with and responding to urban flooding. Research limitations/implications This research has not carried out questionnaire survey of large number of residents. It is based on semi-structured interview of ten residents in two Malaysian cities. Practical implications The insights drawn from this research would help develop flood-resilient policies for Malaysian cities. The global communities exposed to flood disasters too benefit from the Malaysia’s minute but crucial human and institutional experiences in urban flooding. Social implications Being resilient to all these small but important flood concerns has huge potential to reduce vulnerability and disaster risks and protect the lives and properties of flood affected urban residents. Originality/value The research focus in Malaysia is less on flood resilience and more on flood modeling and hydrology analysis. In this sense, this research is new because it talks more on flood vulnerability and resilience issues at the community level and gives a perspective on current Malaysian town's state of flood resilience culture and practices.

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This paper describes the challenges of managing a town planning office in Nepal, based on the author's own work experience. After an introduction to the Kathmandu Valley and its planning institutions, the paper explains how the town planning office operates, describes its programmes and discusses the kind of cooperation it receives from local residents, landowners, politicians and government. It focuses in particular on the socioeconomic, political and administrative challenges and constraints facing the town planning office in enforcing building bylaws, encouraging land-pooling, developing roads and protecting public land, especially in the context of the proactive stance taken by the author. The paper concludes that a less proactive approach might achieve more in moving towards greater receptiveness to the concept and objectives of urban planning.