The Role of Environmental Factors on the Formation of Elamite Settlements in MianKouh of Ardal Area by GIS

Mian Kouh area of Ardal County due to high mountains, deep valleys, small plains and being in Nomads routes has been considered by humans from the past. Because of the importance of Elamite period in this region and since the period remains unknown in East mountainous areas of Khuzestan, knowing about settlement patterns and the impact of the environment on the formation and distribution Elamite sites is essential. During the three seasons survey in this area, in 1387 to 1390, 78 Elamite site was identified and recorded. The goal of this article is to study the environmental factors and their roles on shaping the human habitat spatial in Elamite period. For survey and statistical analysis of the effect of environmental factors on Elamite settlements we used some factors such as altitude, slope, distance from river and distance from communication routs in the area. To find the relationship of each site with another one we divided them, according to based map, into several classes and then we obtained the correlation of sites with each class.On this basis, for each environmental factor a map (GIS) was made and by outputs of this map, statistical analysis of each environmental factor and its role in understanding the settlement patterns in this area was done. Distance from water sources is one of the most important environmental factors in formation of Elamite settlement in the area, almost always all the sites had a suitable distance from the water sources. Other iimportant factors are distance from the path and slope direction.