Book excerpt: Containing the latest research on preparation for and mitigation of future earthquakes, this book addresses an area of increasing importance to many areas around the world. It contains research presented at the ninth and latest in a series of biennial conferences on the topic organised by the Wessex Institute. As world population has concentrated in urban areas, we have seen the consequences of natural disasters take an ever higher toll in human life and property. Adding to this trend, earthquake activity is being registered in areas that were not previously very active, thus the need for research into the application of technological advances to the specific area of earthquake engineering. This volume presents those advances. The papers cover Seismic Isolation and Energy Dissipation; Building Performance During Earthquakes; Nonlinear Numerical Analysis; Performance Based Design; Experimental Studies; Seismic Hazard Evaluation and Microzoning for Structural Design; Seismic Hazard Assessment; Case Studies.