Ahmadi, Alireza2025-08-202025-08-202025-08-202025-08-12https://hdl.handle.net/10012/22209Seismic risk is a global concern, as buildings around the world are vulnerable to damage or collapse during earthquakes. Recent developments in engineering design have resulted in substantial improvements to the seismic performance of new buildings. However, buildings constructed before recent upgrades to the seismic regulations comprise a large portion of the existing building inventory. Buildings with insufficient seismic capacity are susceptible to extensive damage or collapse during an earthquake, contributing to economic losses and casualties. Effective risk mitigation strategies such as seismic retrofitting could potentially address the vulnerability of the existing building stock to earthquake hazards. Yet, seismic retrofit programs suffer from low take-up rates. Thus, identifying barriers for seismic retrofit adoption and strategies to increase take-up rates can help mitigate losses from future events. This study develops an agent-based model to assess homeowner response to multiple seismic retrofit promotion strategies including running education campaigns or providing retrofit cost subsidies. The simulation framework is applied to a case study of owner-occupied, residential-detached dwellings in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, to evaluate the effectiveness of various potential seismic retrofit promotion strategies. These strategies are compared regarding the number of adopters and the reduction in total annual losses to residential building structures and contents in the City of Vancouver. The results suggest that a combination of educational programs and retrofit cost subsidies for low-income households yield the highest adoption rates and the largest reduction in total annual losses to detached residential dwellings. However, the results show focusing only on an educational campaign can achieve similar results in terms of adopters and loss reduction. The model highlights that risk perception is the main barrier for moderate and high-income groups, while the combination of risk perception, willingness to pay, and perceived benefits (tangible financial returns) are the factors impeding the adoption of retrofit measures among low-income homeowners. The analysis on the effectiveness of retrofit promotion policies in reducing earthquake-induced annual losses suggest that government investment in education or subsidies could be cost-effective provided that the implementation costs remain below the projected savings in avoided losses. The model results could be used to inform local government what would be the viable annual budget to be spent on seismic risk reduction strategies. A more comprehensive cost-benefit analysis is needed, involving collaboration between public agencies, insurers, and the construction industry to quantify implementation costs, co-benefits, and risk-sharing mechanisms. This study contributes both methodologically and quantitatively to the development of effective seismic risk mitigation policies. By modelling policy impacts before implementation, policymakers can better evaluate and refine strategies to minimize damage and losses in future seismic events.endisaster risk mitigationseismic retrofittingrisk perceptionmodelling and simulationpolicy interventionsMaster Thesis