Disaster Mitigation Act of 2000

The Disaster Mitigation Act of 2000 (DMA 2000) is federal legislation that establishes a pre-disaster hazard mitigation program and new requirements for the national post-disaster Hazard Mitigation Grant Program (HMGP). DMA 2000 encourages and rewards local and state pre-disaster planning, promotes sustainability, and seeks to integrate state and local planning with an overall goal of strengthening statewide hazard mitigation planning. This enhanced planning approach enables local, tribal, and state governments to articulate accurate and specific needs for hazard mitigation, which results in faster, more efficient allocation of funding and more effective risk reduction projects.

What is Hazard Mitigation?

Hazard Mitigation is any action taken to reduce the loss of life and property by lessening the impact of disasters (natural, technological and man-made). It is often considered the first of the four phases of emergency management: mitigation, preparedness, response and recovery.

Mitigation measures fall into the following six general categories:

Prevention: Achieved through planning and zoning, open space preservation and development regulations, building codes, storm water management, fire fuel reduction, soil erosion, and sediment control.

Property Protection: Achieved through acquisition, relocation, storm shutters, rebuilding, barriers, flood proofing, insurance, and structural retrofits for high winds and earthquake hazards.

Public Education and Awareness: Achieved through outreach projects, real estate disclosure, hazard information centers, technical assistance, and school age and adult education programs.

Natural Resource Protection: Achieved through erosion and sediment control, stream corridor protection, vegetative management, and wetlands preservation.

Emergency Services: Achieved through hazard threat recognition, hazard warning systems, emergency response, protection of critical facilities, and health and safety maintenance.

Structural Projects: Achieved through dams, levees, seawalls, bulkheads, revetments, high flow diversions, spillways, buttresses, debris basins, retaining walls, channel modifications, storm sewers, and retrofitted buildings and elevated roadways (seismic protection).