1. introduction natural hazards have existed in all periods of human life, but nowadays due to the exponential growth of human and population density in all aspects of life, especially in high risk areas, human has been faced with major disasters such as the asia tsunami, hurricane katrina and the earthquake in sichuan of china with significant casualties even in developed countries. these haza...

Natural hazards threaten everybody living in vulnerable areas. With the increasing concentration of people, infrastructure and facilities in them, urban areas are becoming particularly vulnerable to hazards (Pelling 2003, Perrow 2007). Hazards become disasters when they impact on human beings and their artefacts. The people and institutions involved include, amongst others, those participating ...

Protecting constructed facilities from damages from natural and man-made hazards in a costeffective manner is a challenging task. Several measures of economic performance are available for evaluating building-related investments. These measures include, but are not limited to, life-cycle cost, present value net savings, savings-to-investment ratio, and adjusted internal rate of return. This gui...