Value assessment of existing architectural heritage for future generation using criteria importance through inter-criteria correlation and grey relational analysis method: a case of Odisha temple architecture in India

This study aims to assess the value of architectural heritage (AH) for its management. Previously, evaluation of AH has been done based on the opinions of experts. In this study, weights of criteria and overall aggregation have been used based on the collected data, thus minimizing the bias in the opinions of experts and reducing the time of evaluation. To derive relative importance of the multi-dimensional values, criteria importance through inter-criteria correlation has been used, and for aggregation of the grey relationship values, the grey relational analysis method has been applied. In a hierarchy process, these two methods have been repetitively applied to obtain the index value of AH. For a case study, the Odisha temple architecture in India has been considered. The results have been compared with the existing state of protection, and the areas where there is a possibility of improvement of architectural heritage value for its management are discussed.