Life-cycle cost analysis for an incremental seismic rehabilitation project

Incremental seismic rehabilitation (ISR) consists of a set of discrete rehabilitation actions in order to decrease initial costs and to avoid long-lasting disruptions. Nevertheless, there are few cases of incrementally retrofitted buildings and few studies about its economic feasibility. The objective of this work is to evaluate the differences between incremental and single-stage rehabilitation in terms of economic losses during the building’s life span. For this purpose, this work analyzes three rehabilitation proposals to improve seismic performance of typical school buildings. Based on P58 FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency) methodology, expected repair costs and benefits were calculated for each rehabilitation intervention. Results confirm the potential of ISR for improving essential buildings.