Soil water relationships and water repellency are major controls of hydrological and geomorphological processes and growth and survival of plants. The goal of this session is to bring together people working at the challenging forefront of soil hydrology, and discuss new findings and challenges in soil and water relationships and water repellency, and their impacts. Topics zoom in from findings at the watershed-scale to the specifics at the pore-scale, and deal with 1) impacts of human and natural disturbances such as land management, fire and ash, biochar amendment, and urban sprawl; 2) relationships between soil water repellency and soil physical properties; 3) innovative techniques and models; and 4) multidisciplinary interactions between soil water relationships and soil chemistry and plant growth.