PROTECT describes a general procedure to assess the effectiveness of mitigation measures and includes detailed instructions for avalanches, rockfall, landslides, debris flows and floods. The results of the project have recently been published and will be broadly evaluated via practical application in 2009. The first part of PROTECT involved the definition of basic principles necessary for consideration of mitigation measures related to hazard maps. These principles make sure that a minimal level of quality, safety and sustainability is met and that mitigation measures are tested not only with respect to regular design events but also to extreme events. Once the basic standards are met, the effectiveness of the mitigation measures is analyzed in more detail. This approach is subdivided into three main steps. In the first step it is investigated whether the effect of the countermeasures may be relevant in any way to the hazard assessment or not. In the second step the mitigation measures are assessed technically by determining their reliability. Reliability is defined in terms of structural safety, serviceability and durability of the mitigation measures. The third step involves the quantification of the effectiveness, taking into account the mitigation measures with respect to their reliability. Finally, the adaptation of hazard zones can be elaborated based on this information.