Overview of Identification and Evaluation of Aesthetic Values of World Natural Heritage

The modern western classical paradigm dualism that completely antagonizes nature and culture limits the criterion (vii) for assessing aesthetic values of natural heritage when it comes to define “natural beauty”. It makes us to study the “beauty” only from the existence of things, not from the aesthetic activities of people. By reviewing the historical cases included in the World Heritage List under criterion (vii), the paper analyzes the “natural beauty” to be identified by the two types of evaluation requirements for criterion (vii) (“superlative natural phenomena” and “exceptional natural beauty and aesthetic importance”). From the application of criterion (vii), we can find that to distinguish from the scientific values of nature, the aesthetic values must be studied by taking the “natural beauty” and “natural aesthetics” as an organic whole. By analyzing the widely used methods for assessing landscape resources and aesthetics, it points out that the identification and evaluation of the aesthetic value of natural heritage should shift from the existing subjects to the generated relationships, focus on the social and cultural background of “natural beauty”, so as to realize holistic consideration of the natural and cultural value system.