SUMMARY

There is always competition for development resources and trade-offs have to be made.

Existing problems are given more priority then future problems.

Future losses due to disasters may or may not occur, calculations of these losses must be performed in an atmosphere risk and uncertainty.

Spending on preparedness and mitigation should be less than the present value of the expected losses which could be averted by such expenditure. To do this values must be assigned to both the costs and benefits of any proposed program.

Quantification of benefits and losses should include:

- direct and indirect monetary effects
- direct and indirect non-monetary effects.

ANSWER (for question “Which are easier to predict accurately: costs, benefits or losses?”) Costs ANSWER (for question “What are the advantages of using formal, quantitative methods to review mitigation/prevention options?”) Provides a standard to compare program options Facilitates identifying both anticipated and unanticipated outcomes Identifies alternative ways to accomplish the same objective