Factors that can contribute to conflicts within a river basin are:
- Population pressures leading to urbanization, thereby contributing to increased flood hazards downstream;
- Transfer of risks downstream owing to a reduction in natural storage upstream;
- Unplanned development infrastructures, such as roads and bridges obstructing natural drainage and increasing flood risks upstream;
- Alteration of natural flow regimes owing to structural measures and their impacts on ecosystems downstream;
- Land-use changes upstream contributing to flood hazards downstream;
- Lack of sharing of data and information;
- Developments such as land reclamation from water channels resulting in floods of higher intensity and frequency in another part of the basin;
- The poor, particularly the urban poor, having to face higher risks;
- Uneven access to resources, that is information and data, financial, human and material resources resulting in varying degrees of protection.