Saving historic buildings with multi-criteria GIS tool: The case of Hermoupolis — Cyclades

The purpose of the present research is to articulate a strategic approach for the protection, preservation and restoration of a historic building stock. Within this frame, a multi-variable model has been developed for the assessment and monitoring of historic building´s pathology and architectural quality. The system is based on two pillars: the Database System (DBMS “Hermes”) and the Geographical Information System (GIS “Hermes”), which are interconnected. The first pillar addressed the concern and for reliability and objectivity of the data, with the development of two specific internal control procedures. The second pillar (GIS “Hermes”) enables spatial search across historic buildings. In this way, one can use different variables and criteria for composing complex questions. An important question is the ranking of dangerous buildings, reliably and objectively, in order to make the necessary lifesaving innervations. This multi criteria decision-making tool depends on the weight of different variables. After identifying these variables, a team of expert was asked to rank them with an online questionnaire. The resulting ranking was used to weight and assess the risk of the dangerous buildings.