Recent earthquakes have highlighted the importance of good disaster planning. Adequate risk assessment and risk reduction strategies, and improved response and reconstruction work have benefited from the documentation of past disasters. This practical manual offers an up-to-date resource covering both methodological and technical aspects of disaster mitigation. Impacts can be significantly reduced by improved disaster contingency and mitigation planning, involving adequate risk assessment and the implementation of risk reduction strategies. It is based on Latin American experiences of disaster response and planning programmes, and particularly emphasises the importance of community-based participatory processes. The experience of past disaster events, most notably earthquakes and floods, is used to show how local knowledge has been used to develop community responses that both help to raise awareness of dangers and also help prepare for improved future disaster response and reconstruction. Previously published in Spanish, this revised manual contains many practical diagrams and illustrations of building reconstruction case studies following earthquakes and is an important resource for all involved in humanitarian disaster response and planning.