Geographical distribution of vineyard cultural heritagein the world and its causes of formation

There are 9 properties forming part of the vineyard cultural heritage inscribed on the World Heritage List because of its outstanding universal value and the vineyard cultural heritage also became the largest group of agri-cultural heritage. By searching and extracting information about vineyard cultural heritage from the World Heritage List, this paper analyzed the geographical distribution of the world vineyard cultural heritage and its causes of formation. Analytical results indicated that vineyard cultural heritage was authenticated in a narrow time span. The vineyard of Jurisdiction of Saint-Emilion of France inscribed in the World Heritage List for the first time in the year 1999 and the Lavaux Vineyard Terraces of Switzerland inscribed on the World Heritage List as the last agri-cultural landscape in the year 2007. The quantity of vineyard cultural heritage showed a rising trend and peaking during 2000 to 2005. The spatial distribution of vineyard cultural heritage was in accordance with the main production area of grape and displayed a cluster-based pattern and uneven. The vineyard cultural heritages concentrated in European nations such as France, Portugal, German, Austria, Hungary and Switzerland. The results also revealed that ecological factors, national economic development, attention and conservation, policy guidance and action on world heritage nomination were major influence factors on geographic distribution of vineyard cultural heritage. There are a variety of traditional agriculture ecological systems in China similar to the world vineyard cultural heritage with great cultural values. There were some issues we need to pay more attention in the declaration of agri-cultural heritage: 1) to hasten the nationwide census and value judgment on China’s agri-cultural heritage; 2) to pay more attention to the agro-biodiversity and agri-cultural diversity to promote the local sustainable development of economy and society; 3) to do necessary preparation for declaring pilot sites according to GIAHS’s Criteria (system criteria, contextual criteria and project implementation criteria).