**7. Final considerations**

We reported here the NPE for Brazilian territory in a broad scale, especially for pedological cartographic database. As stated by Mendonça-Santos & Santos (2007), at present, approximately 35% of Brazil, 17 out of 26 states and the Federal District, is covered with soil maps at several intermediate scales (1:100,000– 1:600,000) and total coverage of the country is available at exploratory and schematic levels (scales 1:1,000,000 and 1:5,000,000).

In Brazil, soil surveys are still necessary, mainly at larger scales, to support evaluation of soil resources for planning, and management of agricultural and also for environmental projects. Detailed and semi detailed soil surveys are now available in small areas, to support localspecific agricultural and environmental projects (Mendonça-Santos & Santos, 2007). This confirms a necessity for further studies in intermediate scales or preferably, in detailed scales, both for NPE as for actual soil loss.

However, the study in such broad scale here presented permitted we found the major influences over the NPE values according to region of the Brazilian territory. Also, comparing the NPE map with population density, with specific sediment yield and with complementary bibliographic data, we identified major socio-environmental risk areas of NPE.

The great challenge is establish regional and local land use politics conformable with the average rate of soil formation. There are hundreds of cultivars that can be cultivated along the Brazilian territory according to local edaphoclimatic conditions. But they should be managed (both the cultivar and the soil) in order to reduce the soil loss to acceptable rates. The NPE is a tool that helps achieving this aim.
