Natural heritage, documentation and research

Abstract This article presents a discussion about Natural Heritage from documentary research regarding the Iguaçu Falls, a landscape that is considered a Natural World Heritage site. The main objective is to demonstrate that the historical documentation about the site contributes to the definition of a natural asset as a patrimony of humanity. Specifically, it aims to present the data acquired with the cataloging and digitalization of historical documents, to subsidize studies on “Natural Heritage” in the area of Information Sciences and to relate the theoretical and bibliographic production on Natural Heritage with the practice of research in specific cases. The methodology consisted of surveying sources and doing research both on-site as well as in libraries and archives in Brazil and Argentina, being the research restricted to the years 1850 through 1920. In addition, there was the digital conversion of photographic material, which were treated and standardized to compose a thematic digital repository. As a result, books, maps and images (landscape paintings, photographs and postcards) were collected, in a total of 118 documents, of which 104 were converted to digital format. The discussion points out the shortage of articles and specific bibliography about Natural Heritage, in social and human sciences, becoming a potential object for Information Sciences, mainly to enrich the production of information, heritage and memory.