The transport of soil and sediments and the flow of water in geophysical systems takes place over a range of time and spatial scales, and may be influenced by natural or anthropogenic processes. This includes soil and bed erosion in aeolian, fluvial, and dense particulate flows, covering a wide range of disciplines.
Over the last decades computer modelling has become a well-accepted tool to investigate these processes within the 3D landscape. Models have the potential to mimic or even enhance process understanding, extrapolate the processes over various spatial scales (from point to profile to slope to catchment to landscape) and extend the time period from event based to landscape evolution including past and future climate change. Depending on the objective and perspective, the behaviour of soils, sediments and water is modelled differently. Although some efforts have been undertaken in the different geosciences, still no coherent perspective on describing these processes is available. Such a coherent description would enable a comprehensive analysis of the role of sediment and erosion connecting different spheres at different spatial and temporal scales.
Of particular interest is model validity and accuracy, the calibration and validation possibilities, issues of data availability and data collection, and great paradigms such as thresholds, shifts in equilibrium, equifinality, nonlinearity, feedbacks, and emergent properties. Geologists, geomorphologists, hydrologists, and soil scientists are all invited to participate in this discussion to improve our understanding of soil, sediment and water behaviour including the do’s and don’ts of modelling and other approaches.