Multi-objective mitigation budget allocation problem and solution approaches: The case of İstanbul

•Three financial allocation strategies and their multiobjective models are proposed.•Allocation of mitigation budget among Istanbul’s districts and building types.•A ranking method of Pareto-optimal solutions is proposed.•Epsilon constraint method and data envelopment analysis are applied.

İstanbul is the financial, commercial, industrial, cultural and educational center of Turkey. However, İstanbul is also an earthquake-prone city that has experienced many earthquakes throughout its history; and it is threatened with a high probability of a devastating earthquake in the next 30 years. In this study, we propose three financial allocation strategies and their multi-objective models related to building reinforcement, with the purpose of reducing the risk of disaster in Istanbul. The study aims to answer three important questions: (1) How should the mitigation budget be distributed among Istanbul’s districts? (2) Which building types should be mitigated, and how? (3) Can Pareto-efficient solutions be sorted? Pareto-efficient solutions for all of the proposed models were obtained and analyzed. The proposed superefficiency model has the ability to rank the Pareto-optimal solutions.