For-profit buildings in cities such as commercial buildings for rent play a significant role in urban economic activities, and their failure would cause enormous economic loss. To reduce such losses in the event of a severe earthquake, it is necessary to clarify the damage limits of for-profit buildings in terms of business continuity.
This paper investigates the seismic performance of for-profit buildings in terms of economics by introducing an economic damage indicator and discusses the following issues. (1)Permissible repair cost for buildings derived from property information such as construction cost, projected revenues and discount rate, and a resulting “damage limit” for failure in business continuity. (2)Upper-bound investment for earthquake resistance derived from a balance between cost for earthquake resistance and its benefit, and resulting “inevitable damage” in terms of economics. (3)Vulnerability of urban for-profit buildings with low business risk to earthquakes, compared with rural for-profit buildings with high business risk. (4)Significance of establishing a design procedure that considers the “damage limit” and “inevitable damage” in order to reduce economic losses caused by failure in business continuity of urban commercial buildings due to earthquakes.
