Measures or actions undertaken in order to lessen the harmful effects of environmental disasters and hazards, through replacement, restoration, compensation or any other means.
An action that can be planned or taken to alleviate (mitigate) an adverse environmental impact. Mitigation consists of: (1) Avoiding the impact altogether by not taking a certain action or parts of an action. (2) Minimizing the impact by limiting the degree or magnitude of the action and its implementation. (3) Rectifying the impact by repairing, rehabilitating, or restoring the affected environment. (4) Reducing or eliminating the impact over time by preservation and maintenance operations during the life of the action. (5) Compensating for the impact by replacing or providing substitute resources or environments. A proposed airport development project, or alternatives to that project, may constitute a mitigation measure.
Feasible measures which could minimize or eliminate significant adverse impacts; mitigation is not necessary for impacts that are not significant.
The California Environmental Quality Act requires that when an environmental impact or potential impact is identified, measures must be proposed that will eliminate, avoid, rectify, compensate for or reduce those environmental effects.