Prioritizing risk for cultural heritage through social value: a participatory framework

A novel participatory framework reveals that social value significantly influences risk prioritization for cultural heritage, with UNESCO-listed sites in Florence assigned up to 30 times higher value than nationally listed buildings. Museums emerged as the highest-valued sites, strongly correlated with ticket price (r=0.68) and visitor numbers. Canonical correlation analysis (r=0.75) identified ticket price and museum status as key drivers of social value. This approach shifts flood risk mapping away from rivers, emphasizing the critical role of intangible cultural values in disaster risk assessment. The study combines pairwise comparison surveys with quantitative analysis to provide a robust method for integrating community perceptions into heritage conservation strategies.

Arrighi, C., Masi, M., De Lucia, C., & Castelli, F. (2025). Prioritizing risk for cultural heritage through social value: a participatory framework. International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction, 126, 105627. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijdrr.2025.105627