Spatial and temporal changes of Hyrcanian forest in Iran

Original old-growth northern forests of Iran are essential sources of genetic variation, biodiversity, commercial woody products, and various environmental services (e.g., ground water reservation, auxiliary forest products provision, wildlife habitation, and erosion control). Today, the forests are depleting rapidly due to population growth, and associated socio-economic problems, industrial development, urbanism, and more recently intensive/irregular tourism. Satellite image processing and other geo-spatial tools have been used in Iran from the early 80's to map the vegetative attributes of forests for environmental resource monitoring. This paper aims to build up a basic assumption of when and how the spectral, spatial and temporal features of satellite-borne remote sensing have been applied for the sustainable resource monitoring of the Caspian forests of Iran. To this end, available literature will be reviewed, specific features of the studies discussed in brief, and the future prospects for remote sensing-aided delineation of structural and functional characteristics of the forests will be outlined.