“Prevention”
means the outright avoidance of adverse impacts of hazards and related
disasters. Prevention (i.e. disaster prevention) expresses the concept
and intention to completely avoid potential adverse impacts through
action taken in advance.
Examples
include dams or embankments that eliminate flood risks, landuse
regulations that do not permit any settlement in high risk zones, and
seismic engineering designs that ensure the survival and function of a
critical building in any likely earthquake.
In
another words, Prevention is defined as those activities taken to
prevent a natural phenomenon or potential hazard from having harmful
effects on either people or economic assets. Delayed actions drain the
economy and the resources for emergency response within a region.
Prevention is perhaps the most critical components in managing
disasters. However, it is clearly one of the most difficult to promote.
Prevention
planning is based on two issues: hazard identification (identifying the
actual threats facing a community) and vulnerability assessment
(evaluating the risk and capacity of a community to handle the
consequences of the disaster). Once these issues are put in order of
priority, emergency managers can determine the appropriate prevention
strategies. Disaster prevention refers to measures taken to eliminate
the root causes that make people vulnerable to disaster.
