Soil erosion continues to be a major threat worldwide threatening sustained agricultural production and wider environment through sedimentation and diffuse pollution. This has motivated scientists to develop new technologies and techniques to help fill gaps in our understanding – e.g., image analysis, optical fiber applications, biodiversity indices, and probabilistic models.

This special issue explores the use of these techniques, many of them from beyond soil system science, and will therefore (1) serve as a point of entry into the literature for the recent developments on technologies and procedures for evaluation of hydrological and environmental processes related to soil degradation; and (2) provide reports of truly interdisciplinary experiments linking erosion processes with other disciplines.

We hope that the link of disciplinary boundaries between researchers and teachers in the fields of hydrology, geomorphology and engineering will add a higher impact to this special issue for the potential readers and will promote exchange of approaches and new insights.