Evaluation of earthquake mitigation measures to reduce economic and human losses: a case study to residential property owners in the metropolitan area of Shiraz, Iran

Iran is located in a highly seismic active region, and building structures, therefore, need to be designed and constructed to withstand major earthquakes. Structural mitigation measures are now seen as one key element to reduce economic as well as human losses for today and in the future. However, the costs and benefits of various options are difficult to be assessed and usually done without considering both human and economic aspects. This paper should fill part of this gap and performs an in-depth earthquake risk analysis for Shiraz city, in Iran. Additionally, the effects of different mitigation measures for buildings and corresponding changes in risk levels have been investigated. Probabilistic seismic hazard analysis is used to prepare the hazard curves, to be used in the probabilistic cost-benefit analysis of buildings to investigate the effects of using different strengthening strategies. Regarding the importance of the assessment of human casualties during earthquakes, additional cost-benefit ratios were calculated by considering the value of statistical life and performing sensitivity analysis. The results show that considering the value of statistical life in cost-benefit analysis can significantly increase the structural cost-benefit ratios. This has important implications for the decision support as well as policy making side in Iran, and we conclude with suggestions how these issues could be addressed in the future using a risk-layering approach.

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