This special issue summarizes the main results of the first two years of the Science and Technology Research Partnership for Sustainable Development (SATREPS) project, which is supported by the Japan Science and Technology Agency (JST) and the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA). SATREPS has provided excellent opportunities for our joint research team from Thailand and Japan to work in close coordination on challenging multidisciplinary issues.

The Area-BCM for the Enhancement of Resilience of Industrial Complexes in Thailand project was started in 2018. Its scope includes the impacts of urban flooding disasters in Bangkok and its surrounding areas where socio-economic functionalities have been concentrated, as well as chain repercussions of disaster impacts, spread through global supply chains, in important production and logistics facilities in Thailand. Our high-level project targets are based on the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction (SFDRR) 2015–2030 as well as Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), especially #11 (Sustainable Cities and Communities), #8 (Decent Work and Economic Growth), and #13 (Climate Action).

This issue contains interim research results from our project mainly led by members from Thailand with regional aspects of our project site. However, we plan to release another special issue by the end of our project that will include more generalized concepts and frameworks that can be applicable to other regions or countries, including Japan.

As we take a multidisciplinary approach that includes science and technology, life and well-being science, and social science, our main objective in featuring this special issue is to make our interim research results known to other researchers and practitioners in related fields. We do this in order to get opinions and suggestions from different perspectives so that these may be reflected in the directions our research takes during the remainder of our project term.

Finally, I am truly grateful for the authors’ insightful contributions and the referees’ acute professional suggestions, which together make this JDR special issue a valuable contribution to making our society more resilient to future disasters.