Protection of cultural heritage buildings and artistic assets from seismic hazard: A hierarchical approach

The occurrence of natural disasters such as earthquakes represent a worldwide challenge in the conservation of cultural heritage (CH), which suffer from damage due to high vulnerability conditions. Therefore, the protection of CH from seismic hazard is of paramount importance. Damage and vulnerability assessment of CH and artistic assets play a key role in the identification of conservation strategies. Effective strategies require the stabilization of severely damaged buildings and the preventive improvement of constructions structural response to seismic actions. Although the operation of emergency inspections is meant to classify buildings on the basis of buildings residual seismic capacity, investment decisions in restoration and conservation strategies of such vulnerable structures must take into consideration tangible and intangible values of both building structures and artistic goods as well as must combine objectives of verifying structural safety standards and preserving cultural heritage significance. Damage and vulnerability assessment depend on different criteria, which, on the one hand, are related to buildings structural characteristics, materials, and geometrical properties. On the other hand, to the peculiarities and uniqueness of artworks and artistic goods present on structural elements. In this paper, an AHP (absolute) model is proposed to rank multi-criteria prioritization of protection and restoration interventions on a set of 15 churches, which were damaged by earthquakes, occurring in Italy in the last decades. In detail, in order to structure the decision problem, identify key factors, and define the hierarchy, we conducted an extensive literature review and interviewed a pool of experts. Focus groups were organized to develop the set of criteria and sub-criteria and validate the hierarchy by dynamic discussion.