DRR - Q3 L2 - Mitigation Strategies: A Prevention to loss of Lives and Properties

• Mitigation involves acting to reduce the risk of life or property damage from a potentially dangerous incident
• Mitigation


  The process or result of making something less severe, dangerous, painful, harsh, or damaging
• There is no way to avoid natural disasters, but people and organizations may take steps to minimize the harm and losses that they cause
• Programs that intensify nation's hazard mitigation capabilities

  • Protection of schools and hospitals
  • Adoption of nonstructural measures
  • Incorporation of mitigation into new development
  • Protection of cultural properties
  • Protection of natural resources
  • Government leadership of mitigation implementation
  • Mitigation training
  • Hazard-specific research
• Protection of schools and hospitals


  1. Locate and construct new schools and hospitals to avoid high-hazard areas and make special provisions to reduce potential damage

  2. Survey existing school and hospital buildings to determine resistance levels to relevant hazards
• Adoption of nonstructural measures


  1. Businesses and households secure furniture and equipment to reduce earthquake injuries and damage

  2. Vegetation management to reduce damage from wildfires

  3. Structure position away from high-risk areas
• Incorporation of mitigation into new development


  1. Use hazard and risk assessment information, land use plans and zoning regulations to limit development of hazard-prone areas

  2. Incorporate compatible uses of floodplains and other hazardous areas into local planning and zoning to reduce losses
• Protection of cultural properties


  Preservation of libraries, landmarks, historic buildings, art works, and other cultural resources
• Protection of natural resources


  Identify and protect endangered species of wildlife, fish, and plants in the wild, zoos and parks
• Government leadership of mitigation implementation


  Require new facilities they fund, regulate, or lease to be designed, built, and located in accordance with modern building codes and sound practices
• Mitigation training


  Develop and offer training programs focused on contemporary challenges associated with mitigation implementation
• Hazard-specific research


  Conduct research to improve mitigation practices based on lessons from recent disasters
• Actions or plans to protect human lives and properties


  • Develop and rehearse a family disaster plan
  • Include a communications plan
  • Put emergency supplies together for home and car
  • Know how to shut off appliances and keep resources on hand
  • Duplicate important documents
  • Make a detailed inventory of personal belongings
• Vulnerability and exposure to geohazards are determined and validated through scientific tools, visible signs, and maps
• Communities are advised to take precautionary measures to prevent unnecessary damage to lives and properties
• Precautionary measures for landslides


  1. Plant more trees, grasses, and other vegetation for soil compaction and erosion prevention

  2. Build mudflow or debris flow diversion channels to steer flow away from property

  3. Do not build house on or near steep slopes, mountain edges, drainages, or natural erosion valleys

  
• Before a landslide


  1. Be familiar with surroundings and watch for changes

  2. Avoid open storm-water drainage and runoff

  3. Stay updated on news and local disaster plans

  4. Learn and participate in emergency response and evacuation plans

  
• During a landslide


  1. Be attentive to unusual signs like cracking objects, moving debris, and rolling boulders

  2. Stay away from the path of debris

  3. Stay on an elevated and sturdy area

  4. If escape is not possible, curl into a tight ball and protect your head

  
• After a landslide


  Stay away from slide area, listen for latest emergency information, follow warnings and instructions from local government, watch out for flooding

  
• Sinkhole


  A depression or hole in the ground caused by some form of surface layer collapse, often due to the chemical dissolution of carbonate rocks or suffosion
• If a sinkhole appears suddenly

  1. Find refuge in a stable ground or open area

  2. Wait until structures stop moving, do not attempt to retrieve belongings

  3. Wait for local government announcement that it is safe to return
• After a sinkhole appears


  1. Stay away from the sinkhole

  2. Monitor damages and cracks

  3. Do not throw anything into the sinkhole

  4. Secure remaining properties and relocate to safe grounds