Soil water infiltration is a key process in the water cycle since it controls, inter alia, the surface water-groundwater relationship. Infiltration is important not only due to its implication in geomorphological and ecological processes, such as erosion and vegetation water availability, but also to its importance in human development through its influence on water supply for agriculture and human consumption.

Although the interest in the infiltration processes date back to several decades, its study and assessment is still relevant today. In recent years, new methods to measure the infiltration have been developed to solve the inadequate performance or the unrealistic representativeness of the natural processes which have been showed by the former designs. Moreover, the knowledge on the factors affecting this process such as soil and environmental characteristics has been improving as they have been better understood. In the same sense, the infiltration-runoff models developed in the past have changed using these new approaches.

This interdisciplinary session is focused on presenting, discussing and clarifying the new insights in soil infiltration methods, measurements, models and factors. Emphasis will be placed on:

- New insights for measuring and modeling soil infiltration-runoff processes,.
- The influence of soil properties on water infiltration (such as soil mineralogy, texture and structure or water repellency, etc.).
- How environmental characteristics and their changes affect the infiltration-runoff process (for instance land use, vegetation cover, forest floor, wildfires, slope, rainfall intensity, etc.).
- Innovative application of the infiltration-runoff methods, measurements or models (for example seed spreading, nutrient losses, input and migration of pollutants, water treatment, etc.).