Participation and co-operation play important roles in attaining sustainable (and integrated) natural risk management. As a consequence, new management practices relating to participation are being developed and tested. However, deductive approaches to assessment and development ofparticipatory management practices are rare. Here, a newly derived deductive framework for sustainable river basin management is proposed forapplication to the adjacent field of natural risk management. The framework covers issues of values and knowledge in the planning process and making the participatory process democratic. Hopefully, the presentation of the framework at the Global Risk Forum 2012 can act as a starting point for an extended discussion of the use of the criteria as a tool for operationalizing the concept of sustainable development in the field of natural risk management.