DISASTER MITIGATION

INTRODUCTION
MITIGATIONMitigation means taking actions to reduce the effects of a hazard before it occurs. The term mitigation applies to a wide range of activities and protection measures that might be instigated, from the physical, like constructing stronger buildings, to the procedural, like standard techniques for incorporating hazard assessment in land-use planning
A useful analogy with the recently developing science of disaster mitigation is the implementation of public health measures that began in the mid 19th century. Before that time tuberculosis, typhoid, cholera, dysentery, smallpox and many other diseases were major causes of death and tended to assume epidemic proportions as the industrial development of cities fuelled increasing concentrations of population. These diseases had a major effect on life expectancy at the time and yet were regarded as just part of the everyday risks of living. The apparent randomness with which the diseases struck and the unpredictability of epidemics meant that superstition, mythology and a certain amount of fatalism was the only public response to the hazards: the high risk of disease was generally accepted because there was little alternative
　
Vulnerability assessment is a crucial aspect of planning effective mitigation. Vulnerability implies both susceptibility to physical and economic damage and lack of resources for rapid recovery.
　
To reduce physical vulnerability weak elements may be protected or strengthened. To reduce the vulnerability of social institutions and economic activities, infrastructure may need to be modified or strengthened or institutional arrangements modified.
　The most critical part of implementing mitigation is the full understanding of the nature of the threat i.e. Hazard
Understanding hazards involves comprehension of:
how hazards arise
probability of occurrence and magnitude
physical mechanisms of destruction
the elements and activities that are most vulnerable to their effects
consequences of damage
　Mitigation also entails the protection of the economy from disasters. Economic activity in the more industrialized societies is complex and interdependent, with service industries dependent on manufacturing, which in turn relies on supplies of raw materials, labor, power and communications. This complex interdependency is extremely vulnerable to disruption by hazards affecting any one link in the chain. Newly industrializing societies are most vulnerable of all.
In order to determine the areas where mitigation activities will be most effective one must know what the elements at risk are, where they are located and the vulnerability of these elements to the expected level of hazard
　
Mitigation involves not only saving lives and injury and reducing property losses, but also reducing the adverse consequences of natural hazards to economic activities and social institutions.