The United States is projected to have the greatest economic exposure to flood risk in the world, with expected annual property damage from flooding estimated at USD 54 billion (Sadoff et al., Similarly, it will be critical to address water challenges as part of achieving the New Urban Agenda, the Paris Climate Agreement and the Sendai Framew'ork for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015-2030, which explicitly calls for “strengthening disaster risk governance to manage disaster risk”. Meeting the nationally determined contributions on water adaptation under the Paris Climate Agreement and the Sendai Framework requires improved national policy alignment across sectors and governance scales.