Heritage evaluation and analysis based on entropy weight method: the study of Wengji ancient village in China

• Published in: Journal of housing and the built environment Vol. 38; no. 3; pp. 1843 - 1868
• Main Authors: Xu, Lu, Sang, Kun, Li, Guokai, Lin, Guiye, Luo, Qingliu, Giordano, Andrea
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Dordrecht Springer Netherlands 01-09-2023; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Architecture; Buildings; Conservation; Cultural heritage; Cultural values; Culture; Entropy; Entropy (statistics); Geographical distribution; Geographical locations; Geography; Historic sites; Human Geography; Indexes; Landscape/Regional and Urban Planning; Social Sciences; Subsystems; Towns; Urban planning; Urbanization; Villages; Weighting methods; China; Architectural heritage; Traditional village conservation; Value assessment; Residential features
• ISSN: 1566-4910; 1573-7772
• DOI: 10.1007/s10901-023-10019-z

The assessment of the value of villages is the basis of village conservation work. By evaluating the value of residential houses, it is possible to conduct graded conservation and targeted use of traditional villages with limited resources while also helping to guide the urban planning of architectural heritage sites scientifically. This work intends to evaluate the value of representative and ethnic Wengji villages in southern China. And to deal with the trend of traditional architectural culture being submerged by urbanization. First, according to the actual situation of the world-famous village, 12 evaluation index systems, including three subsystems of historical and cultural values, Aesthetic values, and architectural values, have been established. The entropy value method analyzes each index objectively and then solves it by MATLAB. The results are divided into four classes. Each building is numbered to obtain the corresponding weight. The main results show that: the most important factors are obtained for heritage value, architectural style (12%), building material (10.76%), and architectural space (9.68%). From the total value scores of 83 buildings in Wengji village and the distribution map of important value areas. it is known that the geographical location and the origin of village culture have a positive impact on the cultural value of buildings. These findings could provide a policy that offers a breakthrough point for stakeholders to protect ancient villages with architectural heritage in the future.