Natural events such as earthquakes and hurricanes can be hazardous to man. The disasters that natural hazards can cause are largely the result of actions by man that increase vulnerability, or lack of action to anticipate and mitigate the potential damage of these events. Previous chapters make clear that this book does more than describe hazards; it deals with how this information can be incorporated into development planning to reduce the impact of natural hazards. Planners are familiar with the bewildering array of disparate pieces of information that have to be analyzed and evaluated in the planning process. The process is complicated, however, by entirely new data sets on assessment of various natural hazards, separately and in combination, and by the need to analyze these hazards with respect to existing and planned development, choose among means of mitigating the damage the hazards can cause, carry out an economic analysis of the alternatives of mitigation versus no mitigation, and determine the impact of these alternatives on the economic and financial feasibility of the project.