A council provides for the health, safety and welfare of its community. If a council cannot show that it has taken preventative measures to mitigate or lessen the impact of a threat to community health, welfare and safety it may face:

• Extensive loss of infrastructure; and
• Liability costs.

If on the other hand a council adequately identifies threats to its community and has strategic plans in place to prevent or at least reduce the affect of threats to its community then the possibility of infrastructure loss and liability costs will be significantly reduced.