A lifecycle cost analysis of residential buildings including natural hazard risk

Despite isolated efforts in the cost assessment of design strategies for energy-efficient and resilient buildings, there is still a need for an integrated assessment that incorporates major expected costs over the entire lifecycle of the building for more comprehensive cost-benefit analysis. The main goal of this paper is to broaden the scope of cost-effectiveness estimates for residential buildings by analyzing the expected costs of damage due to natural hazards in the context of other lifecycle costs. Specifically, the lifecycle cost analysis presented here includes the expected cost of repair due to earthquake and hurricane hazards as well as the energy consumption, in addition to the initial construction, routine maintenance, and home improvement. A case study is presented for a single-family, wood-frame residential building at two levels of hazard-resistant design. The overall expected lifecycle cost is estimated in terms of decision-relevant economic measures. The application of the approach to the case study under different scenarios produces some interesting insights about the sensitivity of the comparative cost analysis to different scenarios regarding the locations, future values, and economic measure of comparison.