Nasreen Aslam KhanSupervisor By: Mr. Israr-ud-Din2026-09-242026-09-241987http://repository.uop.edu.pk/123456789/608I wish to express my thanks to my thesis adviser Mr. Israr-ud-Din, Chairman, Department of Geography, University of Peshawar, for his Supervision, guidence and personal encouragement at all times. I am also grateful to the members of my supervisory committee Dr. Mohammad Said, Dean, Faculty of Science, and Mr. Mohammad Yaqub Alizai, Associate Professor, of the same department for being helpful in many ways. Special acknowledgements must be made to Professor Paul D. Simkins, Professor Allan Rodger and Professor Anthony V. Williams of the Pennsylvania State University, U.S.A. for their guidance in carrying out the quantitative analysis and computing work discussed in chapter-6 of this thesis. Dr. Mohammad Iqbal, Chairman, Department of Statistics, University of Peshawar also assisted in this work through very valuable suggestions.enThesis