ABSTRACT
This chapter reflects on some of the conclusions drawn in the preceding chapters dealing with different hazards and different approaches to hazard risk reduction. It explores several cross-cutting themes to show the similarities between the conclusions drawn by different chapters. The vulnerability of people, communities, infrastructure, and properties determines the magnitude of the effect of environmental hazards. A global trend is for more responsibility for risk reduction to lie with those at risk. Planning for and anticipating hazards are important risk-reducing actions. Policy changes are often slow, at both the national and international levels, and one judges that the process of mitigation is advancing much more slowly than the increase in risk. Without such efforts across the globe, environmental hazards will cause more damage and disruption, take more lives, cause more misery and trauma, and further hold back national, regional, and local economies.
