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Soil erosion is one of the major causes of land degradation in arid areas. Soil erosion models, e.g. the revised universal soil loss equation (RUSLE), use arithmetical expressions to explore relationships among various processes occurring in the terrain. The established model includes soil parameters, slope, climate and human activities to estimate the water erosion rate and sediment yield. In this study, an approach was adopted to integrate RUSLE model and geographic information system to detect erosion vulnerability and determine the soil erosion risk in the study area. The study area is situated in the Eastern Desert, Egypt. Ground truth data were examined to represent two regions: Luxor-Suhag and Suhag-ElMinya. These regions are exampled by four dry valleys named Sannor, Tarfa, Asyut and Qena, which are planned for agricultural development. The results indicate high risk of water erosion and sediment load discharge into the cultivated land in Luxor-Suhag region. The other region of Suhag-ElMinya is moderately affected by water and sediment load discharge. A higher soil erosion rate was found in Qena wadi followed by Asyut, then Tarfa and Sannur, respectively.