ORIGINAL PAPER Resource allocation for regional earthquake risk mitigation: a case study of Tehran, Iran Pantea Vaziri Æ Rachel A. Davidson Æ Linda K. Nozick Æ Mahmood Hosseini Received: 26 January 2009 / Accepted: 31 July 2009 / Published online: 2 September 2009 Ó Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2009 Abstract This paper presents a new optimization model to help cities in seismically active developing countries decide (1) How much to spend on pre-earthquake mitigation versus waiting until after an event and paying for reconstruction or simply not rebuilding damaged buildings? (2) Which buildings to mitigate and how? and (3) Which buildings to reconstruct and how? It extends previously developed optimization models to consider the particular issues that arise in such countries. First, the model allows for the possibility that some damaged buildings will not be reconstructed immediately and keeps track of any lost building inventory. Second, buildings can be mitigated to, or when damaged, reconstructed to, any appropriate structural type and seismic design level. Finally, the model objectives include minimizing the chance of an extremely high death toll in any one earthquake and minimizing the average annual death toll across earthquakes. The model is illustrated through a case study analysis for Tehran, Iran. Keywords Earthquake  Mitigation  Resource allocation  Developing country  Optimization P. Vaziri Risk Management Solutions, Inc., 7015 Gateway Blvd., Newark, CA 94560, USA R. A. Davidson (&) Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Delaware, DuPont Hall, Newark, DE 19716, USA e-mail: rdavidso@udel.edu L. K. Nozick School of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Cornell University, Hollister Hall, Ithaca, NY 14853, USA M. Hosseini Structural Engineering Research Center, The International Institute of Earthquake Engineering and Seismology (IIEES), No. 26 Arghavan, North Dibaji St., 19537 Farmanieh, Tehran, Iran 123 Nat Hazards (2010) 53:527–546 DOI 10.1007/s11069-009-9446-4