Historical masonry churches diagnosis supported by an analytic-hierarchy-process-based decision support system

The structural and anti-seismic performances of historical masonry churches are related not only to structural damage and masonry quality but also to other criticalities that can jeopardise the connections, wooden elements, and non-structural elements. As such, the technical and scientific communities are interested in the development of fast visual-survey approaches for assessing these issues and for performing exhaustive diagnostics by considering all the parameters affecting the building performance. In this paper, a new procedure for performing rapid visual surveys and the diagnostics of masonry buildings using a set of condition ratings is proposed. The proposed novel approach includes three synergistically related techniques: i) the analytic hierarchy process method for measuring and analysing both qualitative and quantitative data during a visual survey, ii) a suitable survey form to perform a rapid visual inspection implementable in a decision support system (DSS), and iii) a DSS procedure to provide a powerful computerised tool that would be useful in large-scale data acquisition. Finally, to demonstrate the potential of the proposed approach, the Romanesque masonry church SS. Salvatore in Capurso, Italy, is analysed. A comparison with a standard diagnostic workflow is also presented to validate the procedure and to emphasise the advantages of the novel diagnostics.