Willingness to pay for disaster mitigation: The Case of Istanbul

摘要

The population of over 10 million residents of Istanbul faces a severe earthquake threat due to the North Anatolian Fault. Even though local and central governments set new regulations for professional practices at both building and urban scale, risk perception, awareness and precautions taken by residents play an important role to reduce urban risks. This paper aims to reveal linkages between risk perception and willingness to pay-for reducing earthquake risks-of residents in Istanbul. The results show that risk perception of respondents is strongly related with their past experiences. Either respondents believe or not that their residence is safe against earthquakes, they are willing to pay for seismic retrofitting if financial supports and long-term low-interest credits are provided. Furthermore, the ratio of willingness to pay for seismic retrofitting in household budget increases according to the market value of residences.