Cultural Heritage Sites Risk Assessment and Management Using a Hybridized Technique Based on GIS and SWOT-AHP in the Ancient City of Ibb, Yemen

The conservation of Cultural Heritage (CH) sites is vital for conserving a nation’s historical, architectural, and socio-cultural identity, especially in areas like Yemen, where such sites are threatened by natural hazards, urban development, and various anthropogenic activities. This study addresses these challenges by introducing a comprehensive risk assessment and management framework, with a focused case study on the ancient city of Ibb – a region with significant CH. The study employs a novel hybridized approach that combines Geographic Information Systems (GIS) with the Strength, Weakness, Opportunity, and Threat (SWOT) – Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) to identify thirteen critical factors influencing site suitability. These factors are classified into natural and anthropogenic categories and are systematically analyzed using GIS techniques. Additionally, the study identified and evaluated 16 SWOT factors using structured questionnaire surveys, which inform an integrated SWOT and AHP methodology. The findings revealed that the study area is mainly classified from very high to very low-risk areas, representing very high (37.2%), high (24.3%), moderate (17.7%), low (12.3%), and very low (8.5%), of the total study area, indicating that most of them are in highly hazardous environments, necessitating urgent attention and the implementation of protective measures. This study offers valuable insights and optimization strategies for safeguarding the CH sites of the ancient City of Ibb. It is particularly useful for policymakers, conservationists, and local stakeholders, providing a scalable approach that can be adapted to manage risks at other CH sites facing similar threats, thus making a significant contribution to the field of heritage risk management.