When schemes are laid in advance, it is surprising how often the circumstances fit in with them.

— Sir William Osler (1849-1919)

Previous chapters of this volume have discussed the effects of earthquake and the potential resulting damage. This chapter provides guidance on how to go about developing and implementing an earthquake risk reduction program to reduce that potential damage — that is, this chapter discusses developing an earthquake mitigation program. An earthquake mitigation program has five basic aspects:

1. Pre-program activities 2. Assessing the risk 3. Developing the program 4. Implementing the program 5. Maintaining the program

The next section first provides an overview of these aspects, and is then followed by sections providing a detailed discussion of each aspect.