A Decision-Making Model of Budget Allocation for the Restoration of Traditional Settlement Buildings

Traditional settlement conservation is an important work for most global organizations due to its potential cultural, social, economic benefits. The government agencies around the world earmark financial resources for necessary maintenance, repairs and management. Still, budgetary limitations make it difficult to carry out comprehensive restorations of settlement buildings. In Taiwan, the existing methods for allocating cultural preservation subsidies are neither transparent nor systematic. This study employed a hybrid approach combining the Fuzzy TOPSIS with the 0-1 knapsack problem to support decision makers in determining the optimal subsidy decisions and relevant evaluation methods. According to the results of a pilot test, the proposed model is effective in selecting cases for restoration and also in allocating budget resources in an appropriate manner. Thus it remedies the shortcomings of existing appraisal methods and can also be effectively applied to similar cases in other countries.