Optimal allocation of funding for seismic retrofitting measures

There are still many parts of the world where most structures have been built before a sound earthquake building code was established. This means that most buildings may have inadequate capability of resisting major shocks. In these cases, seismic retrofitting would be a valuable risk reduction action. However, a comprehensive retrofit program of all buildings is almost always unaffordable. More realistic and economically feasible would be for a fixed budget to be allocated to reduce seismic risk. Here, we propose a quantitative strategy to select a set of retrofitting options that would maximize the loss reduction, given a fixed amount of money available to be spent.