An Optimization Model for Financial Resource Allocation Towards Seismic Risk Reduction

Subject Areas : Structural Engineering

Elnaz  Peyghaleh ¹ (Ph.D. CandidateDepartment of Civil Engineering, K.N.Toosi University of Technology ,Tehran, Iran)
M.R.  Zolfaghari ² (Department of Civil Engineering, K.N.Toosi University of Technology ,Tehran, Iran)
P.  Vaziric ³ (Risk Management Solutions, Inc., Newark, USA)

Received: 2012-04-18 Accepted : 2012-10-27 Published : 2012-12-01

Keywords: Optimization, Vulnerability, Reconstruction, Earthquake Risk Mitigation,

Abstract :

This paper presents a study on determining the degree of effectiveness of earthquake risk mitigation measures and how to prioritize such efforts in developing countries. In this paper a model is proposed for optimizing funds allocation towards risk reduction measures (building retrofitting) and reconstruction process after potential earthquakes in a regional level. The proposed model seeks optimized strategy towards risk reduction based on minimizing or maximizing various criteria such as retrofitting costs, economic damages including business interruption losses, number of human casualties and other seismic hazard consequences. The main objective of this model is to find optimum strategy for maximizing the benefits of available economic resources for retrofitting and reconstructions. Regional seismic hazard and building stocks and their vulnerability functions are used to model probabilistic seismic risk for a given region. The proposed model is adjusted for developing countries exposed to high seismic sources like Iran. In order to present the application of the proposed method, the approach is applied for a pilot area in Tehran. Results illustrate the variation of mitigation in particular, structural retrofitting expenditures and reconstruction expenditures by structural type for buildings in this region. In addition, recommended expenditures by year for the case study are obtained according to the results.