Life-cycle cost analysis LCCA is a method for assessing the total cost of a facility taking into account all cost of acquiring, owning and disposing of a building or building system or any other structural system. LCCA is especially useful when project alternatives that fullfill the same performance a requirements, but differ with respect to initial costs and operating costs have to be compared in order to select the one that maximizes net savings.
LCCA in conjunction to Seismic Risk and Performance Based Design is the ultimate analysis tool which allows structural integrity assessment in terms of direct costs in the design phase of a project.