Flood risk in rural Indonesia is shaped not only by hydrometeorological exposure but also by the capacity of village institutions to revise plans, mobilize resources, coordinate across administrative levels, and learn from recurrent events. This study compares adaptive environmental policy in flood-prone villages in Bengkulu and East Java to distinguish policy weaknesses that recur across contexts from capacities that depend on local ecological and institutional conditions. A structured comparative case design was combined with adaptive policy analysis and participatory principles. Evidence was drawn from focus group discussions, field observation, and review of village and supra-village planning, budgeting, disaster-management, and environmental documents. A common twelve-indicator framework assessed institutional responsiveness, resource allocation flexibility, and flood risk governance. The comparison shows a consistent structural pattern in both provinces: annual budgeting remains difficult to adjust quickly, maintenance receives less attention than new construction, learning after flood events is weakly institutionalized, and participation is broader in implementation than in agenda setting and evaluation. East Java displays comparatively stronger early-warning organization, cross-level coordination, and access to diversified external networks, whereas Bengkulu shows distinctive strengths in agroforestry, riparian vegetation, local environmental knowledge, and community-based conservation practices. The analysis therefore supports a two-layer interpretation of adaptive policy. Structural constraints are sufficiently recurrent to justify common reforms in budgeting, maintenance, learning, and coordination, while effective solutions must be tailored to local geography, land use, social institutions, and network capacity.