Assessing the Lifecycle Sustainability Costs and Benefits of Seismic Mitigation Designs for Buildings

Abstract

AbstractA complete sustainable-performance analysis that takes into consideration the whole of the triple bottom line of sustainability is necessary when one needs to balance social, economic, and environmental impacts in an optimal cost-effective design based fundamentally on sustainability performance objectives. This study introduces a methodology that can translate seismic building damage into clearly quantifiable social, economic, and environmental impacts, which can be used when selecting repair methods appropriate for various states of building damage and for the local economic and environmental situation. The authors also propose a lifecycle-assessment framework with which one can evaluate the costs and benefits associated with a seismic design over the lifecycle of a building. Two case studies are presented. The first case assesses the sustainability performance of a single RC building under seismic risk. The second case, taking into account the uncertainty associated with seismic events, compris...