In emergency management, prevention and mitigation are distinct but complementary strategies aimed at reducing the impact of disasters. Comparing information from Canadian and Australian emergency management frameworks we will compare the two.
Mitigation is a back-up for prevention.
Mitigation is a supplement to prevention.
Prevention and mitigation are two parts of a single step in the Emergency Management cycle.
Look at it this way – what you really want to do is prevent bad things happening to your community. But you’re an Emergency Manager, not a magician. When you plan out ways of preventing fires, for example, you also need to include mitigation measures as a back-up, in case the prevention measures don’t work the way you want them to.
A good example of this is the FireSafe program – an awareness and education program aimed at reducing the risk of loss of life and property from forest fires entering communities. It can help prevent fires from reaching people or structures to begin with, so it’s prevention. But since that’s not always possible, the program’s main role is mitigation – reducing the risk of damage to people and property by reducing the potential intensity of a blaze. Have a look at the Wildfire Prevention Fact Sheet in your Learner Package for more about prevention and mitigation of wildfires.
Mitigation and prevention measures can also act as supplements to each other -- Avalanche control in high mountain roads, for example, uses controlled detonation as a way of preventing uncontrolled avalanches (much in the same way that controlled burns can prevent wildfires spreading to inhabited areas). Road closures are a way of preventing damage to vehicles and people, while tunnels are used as a way of keeping snow off road – mitigating the effects of an avalanche rather than preventing it entirely.
There’s obviously a lot of overlap between prevention and mitigation – the key thing is you need to do both.
Prevention refers to actions taken to eliminate or reduce the likelihood of a disaster occurring. This approach focuses on addressing the root causes of hazards and reducing vulnerabilities before they develop into emergencies.
Example: Restricting the construction of homes in flood-prone areas to prevent damage from seasonal flooding.
The goal of prevention is to not have an emergency or look at ways to reduce the number of emergencies that could happen.
Mitigation refers to efforts aimed at reducing or minimizing the impact of disasters when they do occur. Unlike prevention, which seeks to stop an event from happening, mitigation acknowledges that some hazards cannot be entirely eliminated, so their effects must be managed and reduced.