**7. Conclusion**

This research provides the quantitative aspect of soil erosion. The research utilized RUSLE with GIS to map the soil erosion severity in the eastern Hindu Kush, Pakistan. The five parameters involved in the RUSLE model are rainfall–runoff erosivity (R), soil erodibility (K)) factor, slope length and steepness (LS) factor, land cover management (C) factor, and support practice (P) factor. These factors are used to estimate the annual average soil loss rate. The maps of these factors were generated separately, and value ranges were obtained from generated maps. The high value of rainfall– runoff erosivity factor (R) indicates that the northern part of the study area receives more rainfall, including the areas of Shoghar, Chitral, and Kalash, as indicated in the results. The topography and high elevation of this region is the major reason for the excessive rains. The soil erodibility (K) factor ranges between 1 to 3. The soil erodibility map was generated by using the raster soil content layers of the respective soil types in the soil map. The slope length (LS) factor has a range of 0 to 28,048. The higher value represents flow accumulation and an increase of slope. Land Cover management (C) factor lies in the range of 0 and 1. Maximum land cover is indicated by assigning it the value of 1, whereas the least land cover is represented by 0. The value of the support practice (P) factor is taken as 1.0 because of the ignorance of authorities on conservation and the deficiency of data on conservation practices.

The study concludes that it is quite significance to recognize and to have a complete understanding of risks related to the erosion of soil in the study area. The current study has proved Eastern Hindu Kush to be under severe threat of soil erosion. The highest rates of soil erosion are found along the path of river. River channel and some areas in Eastern Hindukush are highly vulnerable to soil erosion. Barren land and highlands with steep slopes are more vulnerable to soil loss. The lowermost portion of the Eastern Hindukush is prone to very high soil erosion rates. The magnitude of soil erosion was estimated by calculating the annual average soil loss rates in the Eastern Hindukush, which ranged between >50 to more than 276 Tons/ha/year presented by low and high values. Severity of the soil loss is represented by five different classes. Maximum erosion is observed in northern parts of the study area. Bare areas and highlands with steep slopes are more susceptible to Average annual soil loss. The percentages of the area lie under soil loss rates, concerning its severity, are 37% in insignificant, 16% in slight, 22% in moderate, 11% in severe 6% in very severe, and 8% in the catastrophic severity zone of the study area. Final output of the study was to calculate the soil erosion risk in the Eastern Hindu Kush region, Pakistan. The low and very low class represents areas having no or minimum risk towards soil erosion as compared to other classes. The areas bearing the moderate class are prone to soil erosion but the damages may not be catastrophic. High and very high classes represents the areas having maximum risk of erosion that can be catastrophic in nature if triggered in the near future.

This result of the study shows that the Eastern Hindukush is greatly prone to soil erosion, mainly the southern part of the region including the areas of Ispheru, Arkari, kalash and Harchin and many more. If the phenomenon of erosion expands with the same pace it would cause more land degradation. The results in this study comprise soil erosion severity classes and erosion intensity. The estimated soil loss in the present study was 276 tons/ha/year. The percentage of erosion which is about 8 percent shows that this region is very prone to erosion. The rate of soil erosion is increasing day by day; it will cause serious damage to the living conditions of eastern Hindukush. Thus, livelihoods of many families will be suffered if actions and precautionary measure are not taken in time. There are no precautionary measures in high elevated steep slopes to ensure the mitigation of soil erosion risk. Lack of knowledge and mismanaged agricultural practices in this region is also a major cause of soil erosion. This study will assist the policymakers and planners who can utilize these results to generate a mitigation strategy and can future planning as well.
