<p>Floods are a devastating disaster for humanity, primarily caused by extreme rainfall and storm events. It is essential to reassess the Flood Hazard Potential Priority Zones (FHPPZ) and implement effective flood management practices to mitigate the risks associated with flooding. Topographic landscapes and their fluvial morphology are critical factors influencing flood hazards. In recent years, the Western Ghats (WG) region has experienced severe disasters, with multiple hazards, including floods and landslides, threatening many areas. The impact is felt not only on humans but also disrupts the ecological balance in this fragile environment. To address this issue, a comprehensive framework is needed to assess flood hazards on a large scale, specifically at the watershed level. In this study, a quantitative method is adopted based on hydro-geomorphometric attributes (HGAs) to assess Flood Hazard Potential (FHP) and prioritise the watersheds. HGAs comprise a group of variables, including watershed network, geometry, texture, terrain, and hydrological aspects. Defining suitable HGAs for analysis poses a challenge. To overcome this, scenario-based comprehensive evaluation methods have been developed across seven different scenarios (S1-S7), which incorporate a diverse combination of HGAs and variable screening techniques such as correlation, multicollinearity, and principal component analysis (PCA). To evaluate the Flood Hazard Potential (FHP), methods for assessing hazard degree (HD) and compound factor (CF) ranks are applied to all scenarios. Each scenario provides multi-faceted results demonstrating the influences of HGAs. The cumulative FHP from each scenario reveals significant impacts and varied distributions for potential watersheds; among these, scenarios S2, S3, S4b and S7 show high prediction fitness scores (&gt; 0.8) and rank distribution R² values of 0.73. The composite FHP priority index (CFHPPI) map identifies 67 watersheds categorised as very high potential for flooding, with an area under the curve (AUC) value of 0.875. Overall, S3 and S7 HGA are mostly appropriate for FHP. Eventually, the results of the FHPPZ reveal insightful findings: the very high priority zone encompasses around 20.5% (53,294.4 sq. km) of the total geographical area of the WG watershed region. Within the core WG ecological region, which accounts for 11.9% (30,910.8 sq. km), is a high priority. Therefore, this study will contribute to the development of effective flood management planning, mitigation strategies, and policymaking aimed at minimising disaster situations and moving toward a disaster-risk-free environment.</p> Graphical Abstract <p>The Western Ghats are an ecologically fragile region and a UNESCO-designated biodiversity hotspot, frequently affected by natural hazards such as floods and landslides. The DEM-based generation of hydro geomorphometric attributes (HGAs) is a highly viable and effective method for hydrological analysis. The data processing involves the pre- and post-processing of DEM (Digital Elevation Model), including Fill, Flow Direction, and Flow Accumulation, followed by feature extraction (Streams and Watersheds). About 26 HGAs are calculated and ranked using the hazard degree (HD) and compound factor (CF) scoring methods. By using this scoring, seven scenarios are developed for both ranking approaches. Further, the cumulative Flood hazard map depicts the combined results of the scenarios. The statistical cross-validation provides the best-fit scenarios for further evaluation. The composite flood hazard potential priority shows the overall flood potential of watersheds. Approximately 49.8% of the area falls within the very high to high-priority watersheds. The unique finding of the study is that mountainous watersheds have a high potential for floods and debris floods. The Western Ghats ecological region, which accounts for 25.7% of the total geographic area, has a very high to high potential for flood hazards. Thus, these results might be valuable for further research and could enlighten extended investigations at the micro-watershed level. Ultimately, this study is intended to support the development of effective flood management planning, mitigation actions, and policy-making strategies aimed at minimising disaster risk in the future.</p>