The Relationship Between the Tasks Aimed at the Prevention of Extraordinary Incidents, the Preparation for the Mitigation of their Consequences and the System of Protection

Extraordinary incidents, including disasters, usually cause significant damage to nature, the built environment and human lives. An approach, accepted by experts, is gaining more and more ground in the field of protection and research: it is not enough to respond to incidents following their occurrence, but great attention should be paid to prevent them, and authorities should be fully prepared to mitigate their consequences in due time. What does the preparation for extraordinary incidents mean, where is the place of these tasks in the system of protection, what are the tasks of the prevention phase, and how can the preparation activity be more efficient? In the article the author analyses the complex system of protection/defence, its subsystems, and then she demonstrates the place of disaster management and its subsystems in this environment. She examines the tasks of preventative protection against threat factors, with special regards to the tasks of the prevention/preparation phase. In the light of Hungarian and international prevention practice, she shows the up-to-date methods and tools with the help of several examples.