CON46- 1 - CSCE Annual Conference Growing with youth – Croître avec les jeunes Laval (Greater Montreal) June 12 - 15, 2019 A FUND- ALLOCATION OPTIMIZATION FRAMEWORK FOR PRIORITIZING HISTORIC STRUCTURES’ CONSERVATION PROJECTS - AN APPLICATION TO HISTORIC CAIRO Saad, Dina A. 1,6 , Elyamani, Ahmed 2 , Hassan, Maha 3,5 , and Mourad, Sherif 4 1,3,4 Structural Engineering Department, Faculty of Engineering, Cairo University, Egypt 2 Archaeological Conservation Department, Faculty of Archaeology, Cairo University, Egypt 5 Civil Engineering Department, University of Prince Mugrin, Saudi Arabia 6 d.atef.saad@gmail.com (corresponding author email) Abstract: Egypt is famous for its cultural heritage and historic attractions that span thousands of years. This cultural heritage is one of the tourism industry motors which contributes significantly to the country’s gross domestic product (GDP). Historic Cairo has been declared as a UNESCO World Heritage Site for having hundreds of mesmerizing historic Islamic and Coptic structures; however, tourism-revenues are quite small relative to the ones generated from the famous red sea resorts and Luxor and Aswan ancient sites. This is because most of these structures are partially or completely closed due to the need for restoration and/or their poor structural condition. However, conserving these structures is quite challenging due to its complexity, lack of funds for restoring hundreds of historic structures, and lack of structured funding system. Therefore, this paper proposes a framework for a new multi-objective optimization model that prioritizes competing historic structures for the limited funding available while maximizing the structural physical performance and the socioeconomic benefits over a specified planning horizon, considering: the expected deterioration behavior over the funding period, vulnerabilities to further damage, costs associated with the conservation method, and the structure’s relative importance in terms of its value. In essence, the new model will help decision makers determine the optimum restoration plan to open the deteriorated historic structures to the public, and thus increase tourism-based revenue generating streams to rejuvenate the tourism sector in Historic Cairo, and have a positive impact on Egypt’s economy. 1 INTRODUCTION Travel and Tourism sector is one of the most influential economy drivers. It contributes enormously to the growth domestic product (GDP) on both the global and domestic levels. One out of ten jobs are often supported by Travel and Tourism which is around 9.9% of the global employment (WTTC, 2018). In 2017, the total contribution of Travel and Tourism to GDP was USD8,272.3bn (10.4% of GDP). Egypt is well- known for its ancient heritage and modern sea resorts; accordingly, Travel and Tourism has a great economic impact on its well-being. For instance, in 2016, Travel and Tourism sector contributed to Egypt’s GDP by USD19.4bn, which is 7.2% of GDP, and provided around 1,763,000 jobs although it has been recovering from the devastating terrorists attacks (WTTC, 2017). Accordingly, Egypt relies massively on Tourism as one of its main sustainable revenue-generating streams to boost the nation’s economy. However, the red sea resorts and the historic sites in Luxor and Aswan in Upper Egypt have been dominating those streams unlike Historic Cairo although it is well-known for its eye-catching historic structures (mosques, churches, mausoleums, etc.) that has been declared in 1979 as a UNESCO World