The purpose of this study was to determine the relationship between visual quality of Hyrcani forests and spatial pattern of land use in 9 locations in northern Iran. To do so, a significant portion of the area was photographed and ranked according to the views of a group of 150 viewers in terms of naturalness, cohesion, turbulence and complexity. The area map was prepared using Landsat 8- OLI image processing in 2016. Using the DEM layer and angle of view, their visible areas were identified and their spatial pattern of use was investigated using NP, PD, MPS, LSI, MNN, SHDI and PLAND land metrics. According to the results, forests near rangelands make up about 90% of the area. The results of MPS and LSI showed that the whole landscape was composed of patches ranging from 1 to 6 hectares. Landscape spots at location 6 are on average, more distant and forest patches at location 7 have the highest MNN. The lowest SHDI was obtained at point 2 and the highest at point 7. PLAND data showed that more than 50% of the landscapes were forest-related. The results of correlation analysis showed that there is a significant relationship between (R≥0.60, P>0.05), especially between viewers’ view of normality, cohesion, perturbation and SHDI and PLAND values. Visual preferences of people regarding recreational visits are areas with natural forest spots.

Alborz’s geographical position on the way between the Caucasus region to the west and the Central Asia to the east and its great ecological diversity make it a key region for understanding human population movements and their cultures during Pleistocene. The Caspian coastal plain and large and permanent rivers with their tributaries combined with general marked environmental variations in this region supported a diverse fauna and flora during most of the Pleistocene which in turn provided rich ground for human exploitation. Darband finds indicate that hominins have been present in the region since at least Middle Pleistocene. Evidence for Middle Paleolithic occupation of Alborz is known from a number of cave and open-air sites among which three cave sites have been tested or excavated. These sites are Kiaram, Yarshalman and Buzeir caves that have yielded Mousterian lithic artifacts in association with faunal remains. Presence of woodlands or open woodlands species such as red deer, aurochs and bears in the faunal assemblages of these sites indicates that these Middle Paleolithic occupations may have been related to the interglacial or interstadials periods. Archaeological, faunal and botanical remains from some of these sites along Alborz and south of the Caucasus Mountains provide an opportunity to reconstruct changes in environment from at least late Middle Pleistocene until the late Upper Pleistocene.