Aims and methods

The aim of a mitigation strategy is to reduce losses in the event of a future occurrence of a hazard. The primary aim is to reduce the risk of death and injury to the population. Secondary aims include reducing damage and economic losses inflicted on public sector infrastructure and reducing private sector losses in as far as they are likely to affect the community as a whole. The objectives are likely to include encouragement for people to protect themselves as far as possible.

Any mitigation strategy is likely to include a range of measures from the menu of actions outlined in Part 2. A set of actions that includes some engineering measures, some spatial planning, and a degree of economic, management and societal inputs will be needed to bring about effective mitigation. A mitigation program that concentrates solely on any one of these five aspects will be unbalanced and is unlikely to achieve its aims.

A mitigation strategy has to be designed for its proposed application. Disaster mitigation programs carried out in the Philippines are unlikely to be directly transferrable to Peru. There are few standard solutions. Some individual elements and techniques of mitigation will be transferrable - compulsory purchase techniques for widening roads in dense urban areas that have been used in Peru may be of interest to the planners in the Philippines - but the full range of measures needed to reduce disaster potential for an individual application is likely to be unique. In each country the range of hazards faced are likely to be different. The types of infrastructure, houses and other elements at risk will have their own characteristics. The types of actions that are possible including the legislative framework, the social attitude to the problem and the budget that is available will specify what constitutes an effective mitigation program.