Tools aiding decision-making for economic resources allocation in seismic retrofitting of residential buildings

Abstract

A significant portion of the masonry and reinforced concrete buildings in Italy resides within regions of moderate to high seismic risk, rendering them especially susceptible to earthquakes. While urgent reinforcement measures are necessary, resources are limited, and retrofitting the entire existing building inventory is impractical. Therefore, optimizing resource allocation for reinforcement interventions becomes essential, considering cost constraints and various factors tied to repair and indirect expenses, such as population size, building priority, size, and vulnerability. This study focuses on making decisions about the most efficient budget distribution for proactive strengthening in seismic regions and reactive repairs post-earthquake. The objective is to minimize the count of uninhabitable buildings while factoring in their resident capacity. Utilizing a two-stage stochastic model with iterations, analyses are conducted, assuming a maximum cumulative budget for proactive strengthening and/or reactive reconstruction. The solution derived from this stochastic approach is compared to a scenario where the budget is solely allocated to reactive measures. The findings are presented and deliberated within the context of a specific case, a small town in Sicily, Italy.