A Risk-Based Approach for Assessing Social Sustainability Performance of Cultural Heritage Construction Works

Abstract

ABSTRACT The multidimensional problems that archaeological sites and cultural heritage assets face demand effective multiple criteria decision-making, regarding risk impact identification and evaluation. There is a great array of risks affecting cultural heritage sites and assets nowadays, including environmental and manmade factors. Risk assessment towards decision-making always considers cultural sites’ and asset’s intrinsic values that determine their cultural significance and thus contribute to conservation planning and management through prioritization of the needs and allocation of the available budget accordingly. Therefore, the aim of this study is to support decision-making for maintenance and conservation interventions in archaeological sites and cultural heritage assets. The paper proposes a risk-based approach utilising the Analytic Network Process (ANP), a multi-criteria decision-making method incorporating both qualitative and quantitative criteria with interdependences and feedback. The proposed approach is tested and validated through an illustrative application regarding a classical monument of an archaeological site of Athens subjected to the conditions of a typical urban environment. The application of this method allows for interdisciplinary, multi-criteria analysis of risk towards interventions decision-making against complex and demanding conservation cases.