Conservation of built cultural heritage is never an easy task, especially when
the subject heritage is located in a heavily developed urban area. The enduring
controversy over the conservation scheme of the former Central Police Station
Compound in Hong Kong has highlighted the diffi culties in achieving satisfying
decisions in conservation projects by way of private sector participation. The
crux of the deadlock lay in the different perceptions of the project stakeholders
towards the relative importance of different decision-making criteria. In fact,
many challenges of this kind associated with built heritage conservation can be
modelled as multi-criteria decision making (MCDM). The main objective of this
study is to present an MCDM model on the criteria for decision making, which
can have many applications in heritage conservation decision making. To this
end, a preliminary MCDM framework for project selection is developed using
the analytic hierarchy process (AHP), which has been widely applied to MCDM
in many other fi elds. Using this framework, 20 local building professionals were
interviewed to solicit their views on the relative importance of the decision
criteria. It is contended that the AHP provides a scientifi c approach to the
quantifi cation of the relative importance of various decision-infl uencing criteria.
In addition, the use of the AHP will help the government and community identify
projects with the best potential to deliver satisfactory outcomes in a project
selection process that is not based simply on the highest bid

• Multi-criteria decision making for urban built heritage conservation: application of the analytic hierarchy process