Bangladesh is one of the poorest countries and one of the most disaster prone countries in the world, more specifically due to its exposure to flood risks. There is much evidence to suggest that these risks are expected to become more severe over the upcoming years. This paper begins by identifying the factors that make Bangladesh and its social groups vulnerable to flood risks, and to study the decision making of these groups during a risk to understand how their livelihoods are affected. This paper aims to understand how social groups prepare, respond and recover from environmental stresses such as flooding, and to critically analyse the effectiveness (successes and limitations) of existing resilience strategies. The research gathered is then taken forward to see how these insights can influence future policy, resilience/adaptation strategies and architectural designs for Bangladesh.