An Integrated AHP-Kano Approach to Assessing Rural Public Art Interventions: Evidence from Songyang County, China

Rural public art is increasingly used to improve living environments and reactivate place-based culture in rural communities. However, existing evaluations remain fragmented and provide limited support for assessing intervention effectiveness and formulating targeted strategies. To address this gap, this study constructs a multidimensional evaluation system for rural public art interventions and empirically tests it through case studies of 11 villages in Songyang County, China. The system covers three dimensions: material space creation, cultural heritage and innovation, and the reconstruction of social relations. A mixed-methods approach was adopted, combining literature review, field investigation, expert consultation, AHP weighting, and Kano demand classification. The results support the validity of the proposed evaluation system and identify cultural heritage preservation and transmission, basic and cultural facilities, funding safeguards, spatial accessibility, cultural affinity, and local cultural aesthetic compatibility as stable priority indicators. The comparison between expert weighting and stakeholder sensitivity further reveals differences between strategic importance and locally perceived demand. This study provides an operational evaluation system for assessing rural public art interventions and translates the evaluation results into targeted strategies, offering empirical support for more sustainable and context-sensitive rural public art practices.