Hazard mitigation is defined as sustained action taken to reduce or eliminate long-term risk to human life and property from hazards.

Following a disaster, there is a great opportunity for stakeholders of all levels to collect a variety of data and information that can help to identify new, or further develop existing, hazard mitigation actions and strategies. This guide will discuss various opportunities to identify data and information that is collected following a disaster and then to
integrate that information into local and state hazard mitigation and other planning processes. This guide may be used in conjunction with FEMA’s Local Mitigation Planning Handbook 2, which is the official guide for local governments to develop, update, and implement local mitigation plans.

The intent of this guide is to draw from various existing guidance and operations documents and provide users with a clear picture of how the data and information that come out of a natural hazard disaster can be filtered back into the local hazard mitigation planning process to help improve local natural hazard risk reduction actions and strategies.
This guide is intended for anyone interested in utilizing disaster data information to plan for and implement hazard mitigation activities. This document does not impose legally enforceable rights or obligations
although it references regulations and agency practices.

How-To Guide #9 (FEMA 386-9) shows how a community can move from the hazard mitigation plan to developing mitigation projects that may be implemented fully using FEMA Hazard Mitigation Assistance as appropriate. This Guide explains the process of developing the scope of a project, identifies the key components of a successful mitigation project funding application, and describes how to identify funding available through FEMA and other agencies. This Guide explains how valuable information in the mitigation plan can be used to develop the project scope of work and how to use lessons learned through the implementation of mitigation projects to improve the mitigation plan when it is updated. This Guide is intended for grant writers, project developers, planners, emergency managers, and community leaders. It is particularly helpful for State, Tribal, and local government officials, department heads, nonprofit organizations, and other parties responsible for implementing hazard mitigation actions.

Disasters can cause loss of life, damage buildings and infrastructure, and have devastating consequences for a community’s economic, social, and environmental well-being.  Hazard mitigation planning is the process used by state, local and tribal leaders to understand risks from natural hazards and develop long-term strategies to reduce the impacts of disasters on people, property, and the environment.   This fact sheet describes the local hazard mitigation planning process, the benefits of mitigation planning to the local community, examples of mitigation actions, and links to mitigation planning guidance, tools and training resources.