The accelerated changes in climate resulting in more frequent and disruptive floods necessitate broader perspectives of infrastructure vulnerability assessment. This requires both modelling of physical infrastructure systems and also the role of community and expert perceptions. This presentation reviews two ongoing research efforts on coastal and riverine flooding. Foundation scour is one of the primary causes of structural damage in coastal communities during flooding events. A hybrid testing and simulation campaign is being pursued using the state-of-the-art wave flume physical modeling, geotechnical centrifuge modeling, and numerical simulation to answer a number of critical and open questions related to the interactions among extreme flood flow, soil, and structure which lead to scour and foundation failure. Further, flood control infrastructures such as levees and breakwaters play a critical role in protecting communities, particularly in the face of increasing climate variability and extreme weather events. Fragility functions and system dynamics modelling have been leveraged to connect the levee performance and engineer’s perception in design through a holistic implementation of behavioural theories. The models not only help assess the social and technical aspects of levee life cycle, but they are also instrumental in future flood protection strategies.