Over the past years, many land restoration projects, including natural regeneration and tree planting, have been implemented in West Africa to combat land degradation. In addition, land restoration is often used to increase biodiversity or as a climate change mitigation measure through carbon sequestration. However, as land restoration can also affect the local climate more directly through biogeophysical processes, some projects propose a new use: implement land restoration to alter the water cycle, increase rainfall and water availability, and make regions less vulnerable to climate change. In general, vegetation can increase cloud cover (and rainfall) through changes in evapotranspiration and moisture availability for cloud formation. At the same time, the albedo and surface roughness can affect the heat fluxes required for convection. Previous research has tried to unravel these general relations between vegetation and cloud cover. Yet, it is currently unknow to what extend land restoration projects, which usually have a limited spatial extend, can affect cloud cover in West Africa. In this study, we use observational remote sensing data to study the relations between vegetation and cloud cover in the context of land restoration. The Meteosat Second Generation (MSG) satellite provides 20 years of data at a 15 minute temporal resolution. Yet, the spatial resolution of 3 km of the available MSG cloud cover products is relatively coarse to study convective clouds over small vegetated areas. Instead, we apply a statistical algorithm to calculate cloud cover from the MSG High Resolution Visible (HRV) band, in order to obtain cloud cover data on a 1 km resolution. Using this method, we can provide high resolution observational evidence of cloud cover-vegetation relationships across West Africa. Preliminary results show that in Nigeria and Benin, cloud cover frequency is higher in areas with a high vegetation cover than in surrounding areas with a lower vegetation cover. With this study, we provide insight into whether land restoration projects can be used to increase cloud cover and adapt to the negative consequences of global climate change.

The Three Gorges Dam (TGD) and its impoundment significantly alter natural river properties and local land cover, drawing considerable concerns regarding its climatic and environmental effects. However, with the role of the Three Gorges Reservoir (TGR) in narrowing temperature ranges and changing precipitation patterns is well understood, its impact on moisture recycling is little known. Here, we tracked precipitation in the TGR basin back to evaporated moisture to explore the features of moisture recycling and quantify local evaporation ratios in the pre‐dam (1980–2002) and post‐dam (2003–2022) periods. The influences of the forcing data, simulation time steps and different tracking models on evaporation recycling are investigated. Relevant mechanisms are analyzed in terms of atmospheric motion, surface radiation, land cover changes and climate variability impacts. Results indicate that the precipitationshed shows a reduction in both summer and winter during the post‐dam period. Local evaporation recycling ratios (ERRs) in TGR basin decrease by 0.46%, 1.07%, 0.59, 0.94% during the post‐TGD period relative to the pre‐TGD period in spring, summer, autumn and winter, respectively. Local evaporation contributions are limited in both the pre‐dam and post‐dam periods, especially in dry years. The reduced precipitation in TGR region is more dependent on upwind moisture, which results from the enhanced sinking motion and moisture divergence. Although different forcing data and simulation time steps show good agreement in spatial and temporal variations in the recycled moisture, the local ERRs are larger when calculated from the UTrack model than from the WAM‐2layers model.

Plastic pollution is a global environmental challenge that negatively impacts species, ecosystems, and human livelihoods. River basins, with high population densities and poor waste management, are particularly exposed to plastic pollution. Floods amplify the presence of plastic in rivers by mobilizing previously deposited materials and introducing new plastics. Yet, the fate of these mobilized plastics remains unclear, with observations suggesting either downstream export or floodplain deposition. This study assesses flood impact on macroplastic deposition along river floodplains, using data from 14 events─five floods and nine nonflood conditions─across two Dutch rivers. Higher flood return periods increased macroplastic deposition, with the two largest floods depositing two to three times more macroplastic than nonflood conditions. Deposition mechanisms varied by flood type. Obstruction-based deposition dominated during an extreme summer flood, when macroplastics accumulated mainly in inundated vegetation. Low-energy deposition prevailed during a long winter flood, with high plastic concentrations found in wide floodplain sections where flow velocities decreased. Flood severity and plastic entry into the environment are both projected to increase. Therefore, we expect an even more prominent role for floods in the global distribution of plastic pollution.

Information about irrigation with relevant spatiotemporal resolution for understanding and modelling irrigation dynamics is important for improved water resource management. However, achieving a frequent and consistent characterization of areas where signals from rain-fed pixels overlap with irrigated pixels has been challenging. Here, we identify irrigated areas using a novel framework that combines hydrological modelling and satellite observations of land surface temperature (LST). We tested the proposed methodology on the Rhine basin covering the period from 2010 to 2019 at a 1 km resolution. The result includes multiyear irrigated maps and irrigation frequency. Temporal analysis reveals that an average of 159 000 ha received irrigation at least once during the study period. The proposed methodology can approximate irrigated areas with R2 values of 0.79 and 0.77 for 2013 and 2016 compared to irrigation statistics, respectively. In dry regions, the method performs slightly better than in wet regions with R2 values of 0.90 and 0.87 in respective years, with an average improvement in R2 by 0.14. The method approximates irrigated areas in regions with large agricultural holdings better than in regions with small fragmented agricultural holdings, due to binary classification and the choice of spatial resolution. The irrigated areas are mainly identified in the established areas indicated in the existing irrigation maps. A comparison with global datasets reveals different disparities due to spatial resolution, input data, reference period, and processing techniques. From the multiyear results, the largest irrigated area was found in the Alsace region in the Rhine valley, where the irrigation extent is negatively correlated with precipitation (r=-0.82, p value = 0.004) and less with potential evapotranspiration (ET).

Soil moisture is a key variable in land-atmosphere interactions, as it affects the partitioning of near-surface energy fluxes and thereby temperature and humidity of the lower atmosphere. Both ambient temperature and humidity play a crucial role in the removal of heat from the human body through direct heat transfer and sweat evaporation, therefore these two factors are commonly used in measuring moist heat stress. As moist heat stress describes the combined effects of temperature and humidity on human health and well-being, understanding the intricate relationship between soil moisture and moist heat stress is crucial for accurately assessing and mitigating moist heat extremes. Whereas the impact of soil moisture on temperature is well understood, previous research has found non-trivial and complex relations between soil moisture and moist heat stress due to humidity feedbacks. We selected two metrics among four widely used metrics which involve both temperature and humidity, indoor and open-air wet-bulb globe temperature, heat index, and humidex, to represent the heat stress in our study. We use different levels to describe the significance of the heat stress and tolerance level among the population. In this study, we aim to investigate the impacts of soil moisture on moist heat stress at the global scale using the Land Surface, Snow and Soil moisture Model Intercomparison Project (LS3MIP) dataset within the sixth phase of the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project (CMIP6). We use the historical and future simulations from LS3MIP to analyze the spatial and temporal variations of soil moisture-heat stress coupling, and to identify the regions that are most susceptible to moist heat stress. Interactions between soil moisture and moist heat stress tend to be particularly pronounced in hot and humid regions,. These regions are likely to experience more frequent events with higher moist heat stress, posing serious challenges for human health and adaptation. To our best knowledge, this study is the first to show a global picture of the interactions between soil moisture and moist heat stress using CMIP6 dataset. The pattern of heat stress in relation to soil moisture in perspectives of the time of day, season, and soil moisture regime will be investigated. Our study provides a novel insight into the role of soil moisture in modulating moist heat stress, and highlights the need for more accurate representation of land surface processes and feedbacks in climate models. The findings are crucial for developing effective strategies in managing moist heat stress risks and protecting vulnerable populations.

Stable and predictable wet-season rainfall is crucial for soybean production in Brazil. However, climate and land-use changes, particularly Amazon deforestation, have increased rainfall variability in the region in recent decades. Here, we investigate long-term growing-season rainfall changes over two major soybean breadbaskets in Brazil from the perspective of atmospheric moisture transport. Utilising a novel moisture tracking framework based on a Lagrangian model guided by observations, we identify moisture source regions where evaporation contributed to rainfall over these breadbaskets. Furthermore, we quantify the relative contributions of source evaporation versus atmospheric (thermo)dynamics changes to downwind rainfall variability. Our results indicate that deforestation-induced evaporation declines have negatively impacted downwind rainfall in the breadbasket regions. However, strengthened circulation, evidenced by increased water vapour transport and low-level wind speeds consistent with decreased tree cover, has enhanced moisture transport from upwind regions (including Amazonia and the Atlantic Ocean) to the Brazilian soybean breadbaskets. This highlights the compensatory effects of deforestation on rainfall through decreased evaporation and altered atmospheric (thermo)dynamics, and how these effects may influence downwind soybean productivity in South America. Further understanding these interactions is critical for developing land management strategies to mitigate the agricultural impacts of climate change in the region.

Heatwaves have significant effects on ecosystems and human populations. Human habitability is impacted severely as human exposure to heatwaves is projected to increase. Future risk of heatwaves requires effective measures for adaptation to persistent hot temperature extremes and ambitious mitigation to limit further increases in heatwave severity. At local scales, afforestation and reforestation could be a potential approach of modifying the (near-)surface energy budget and temperature, in this way alleviating heatwave impacts. In this study, thermal characteristics and energy fluxes across open-site, below-canopy, and above-canopy environments are analysed and compared, to investigate canopy's dual functions in affecting above-canopy macroclimate and acting as a thermal insulator that regulates understory microclimate and litter layer environment. Using high-resolution sub-daily datasets from the Loobos flux tower site in the Netherlands, complemented by routine weather data from 3 nearby meteorological stations, we analysed temperatures at three levels of Loobos (23.5 m, 7.5 m, and litter layer) along the same vertical profile and compared them with those measured at nearby open sites. During heatwave periods, the cooling effects of the canopy on litter layer temperature are up to 12.5 K while the canopy may also amplify the temperature above it by up to 5 K between 15 and 23 pm accompanied with increasing sensible heat. In the conditions of daytime, the site-average canopy effects increase quasi-linearly (R2 > 0.78) with the rising open-site temperature. This research reveals the ability of the forest in providing contrasting climate regulation ecosystem services on both below-canopy and above-canopy environments, in which the canopy's potential in accommodating the temperature of near-surface environments during both day and nocturnal times to alleviate impacts from compound heatwaves is highlighted.

Abstract. Within hydrological modelling, a persistent notion exists that a model is a neutral, objective tool. However, this notion has several, potentially harmful, consequences, such as marginalising certain stakeholders. In the critical social sciences, the non-neutrality in methods and research results is an established topic of debate. Thus we propose that in order to deal with it in hydrological modelling, the hydrological modelling network can learn from, and with, critical social sciences. This is a call for responsible modelling – modelling that is accountable, transparent, power-sensitive, situated and reproducible and this responsibility is carried by all actors related to the modelling study. To support our proposition, we have four pillars of arguments, detailing the social aspects in hydrological modelling, insights from the critical social sciences, how to build bridges between sciences, and reflecting on what the hydrological modelling network can learn. We provide several actionable recommendations as a follow-up. The main take-away, from our perspective, is that responsible modelling is a shared responsibility. Therefore, we invite all actors – from the modelling network (from commissioner to modeller to end-user) and society – to take up their share in establishing responsible modelling.

Understanding the contributions of anthropogenic climate forcings to heatwave intensification is essential for evaluating mitigation strategies. While greenhouse gas influences on temperature extremes are well established, the impacts of other anthropogenic forcings, particularly aerosols, remain inadequately characterized. Here, we quantify the distinct contributions of greenhouse gases, anthropogenic aerosols, and natural forcings to extreme heatwave metrics from the pre-industrial period. Globally, changes in the duration of heatwave events and cumulative heat are +2.77 +/- 0.85 days and +1.76 +/- 0.31 degrees C2 attributed to greenhouse gases, and -1.10 +/- 0.34 days and -0.85 +/- 0.14 degrees C2 due to anthropogenic aerosols, respectively, over the past 3 decades relative to pre-industrial levels. This indicates that aerosols substantially masked greenhouse gas effects until the 1990s. Under current mitigation policies, declining aerosol emissions have exacerbated heatwave intensification at rates of +1.07 +/- 0.32 days decade-1 and +0.47 +/- 0.09 degrees C2 decade-1 for duration and cumulative heat respectively, exceeding the intensification attributable to greenhouse gases alone. Heatwave intensification has been driven primarily by reduced cloud cover and increased shortwave radiation resulting from weakening aerosol forcing, especially in Central North America and Europe. However, the regional climate changes driven by greenhouse gases and aerosols exhibit spatial heterogeneity, highlighting the necessity for geographically targeted mitigation strategies.

Land restoration projects, including reforestation and area protection, are being implemented across African drylands such as the Sahel. In addition to biodiversity, livelihood and carbon sequestration benefits, restoration can also affect the local climate through land-atmosphere interaction. Yet, it remains unknown to what extent dryland restoration can affect cloud cover development and, ultimately, precipitation. Here, we use twenty years of high-resolution data from the Meteosat Second Generation satellite to study the impact of land restoration on cloud development in West African drylands. Results show that cloud cover frequency and convective initiation are higher above vegetated areas, particularly during the start and end of the wet seasons. Furthermore, we find a more pronounced cloud cover enhancement over protected areas larger than 121 km2, suggesting a scale-dependent relationship between project size and cloud cover development.

Compound extreme events, such as simultaneous soil drought and atmospheric aridity (CDAEs), have garnered wide attention for their devastating effect on the terrestrial ecosystem, which is greater than the impact of individual extremes. Large-scale changes in land cover have been shown to profoundly impact water-energy fluxes and hydrometeorological processes, affecting CDAEs. However, isolating the contribution of land cover change to the occurrence of such CDAEs has not been thoroughly evaluated. Here, by analyzing the subtraction of two scenarios with only change in landcover (i.e., afforestation and non-afforestation), we isolate the performance of land cover change on the CDAEs in the summer season at the Loess Plateau (LP) over history (1850-2014) and future (2015-2100). Effected by the closed stomatal in water-limited region, afforestation weakened the interaction between soil moisture (SM) and vapor pressure deficit (VPD), thereby reducing the occurrence probability of CDAEs at the LP, especially the occurrence probability of future CDAEs has decreased by over 5% at the northern LP. Additionally, we identified the influences of specific land and atmospheric processes through afforestation and non-afforestation on LP's CDAEs in the summer. Given afforestation alters the distribution of energy and water flux, the historical decrease in CDAEs was primarily associated with the land cover change due to afforestation that resulted in the increased contributions of the leaf area index (10% contributions) and temperature cooling (13% contributions). In contrast, the CO2 levels that were influenced by land cover changes would dominate the occurrence of CDAEs in the future, with the increasing by 10.6% contributions from afforestation. Our perspective provides insight into the response of CDAEs related to land cover change, which is necessary to design adaption strategies for compound extreme events, especially in fragile ecosystems.

Globally, 60% of the evaporation from land returns as precipitation over land and a fifth of annual precipitation over land is directly dependent on the presence of vegetation-supplied moisture. In many regions, particularly in dry seasons, a majority of the precipitation relies on moisture from vegetation and is therefore vulnerable to changes in upwind land use that modify water moisture supply to the atmosphere. The benefits of precipitation for societies are invaluable, ranging from food production to carbon sequestration, and the role of ecosystems for supplying moisture for rainfall can be therefore be considered an important, albeit under-appreciated, ecosystem service. Our research shows that loss of moisture-supplying ecosystems, such as deforestation in the Amazon, can disrupt such moisture supplies, thereby reducing precipitation and negatively impacting crop yield, wetlands, and forest resilience in downwind regions. Conversely, some human activities, such as afforestation and irrigation, bring untapped subsoil water resources into the atmosphere and can help mitigate dry spells both locally and remotely. While they can have the potential to bring moisture-supplying benefits similar to moisture-supplying ecosystems, they also carry the risk of depleting local surface and groundwater resources and bringing about other adverse trade-offs. The past decade has seen rapid developments in moisture tracking models and data, which have brought to light previously ignored long-distance moisture flow relationships among different land areas, land users, and land-use decisions. These scientific advances mean that it is now possible to map out the ecosystem service of vegetation-supplied precipitation at a global scale in great detail, as well as to track their dependencies and interdependencies. We argue that the time is ripe for moisture-supplying ecosystems to be widely considered in land management and governance contexts. Nevertheless, a few important challenges remain. Particularly, future research needs to better constrain the uncertainties of moisture recycling relationships under climate change and atmospheric circulation change; to understand the effects of ecosystem adaptation, regime shifts, and social-ecological feedbacks; as well as to quantify the multiple benefits and trade-offs of the ecosystem service of vegetation-supplied precipitation. A better understanding of the relationships between moisture supply, drought mitigation, ecosystem resilience, and terrestrial carbon is especially relevant under the current UN Decade of Ecosystem Restoration as well as for achieving the Paris Agreement temperature target.

Rivers play a substantial role in plastic pollution transport and storage but the transport processes that determine macroplastic fate in the riverine environment are not fully understood yet. Usually it is unknown when and where specific plastic litter items entered the environment, therefore macroplastic transport is often studied via e.g. GPS trackers. However, the July 2021 flood provided an unique opportunity of spilled macroplastic items, with clearly known time and space of emission.In July 2021 severe floods affected multiple European river catchments, including the Meuse catchment in Belgium. A dairy company located at the Meuse tributary Vesdre was flooded, with parts of their facilities and a lot of material washed away. Among the washed away material was also ~8 million empty dairy packages ("buttertubs"), which have a printed ID code that can be traced to their emission point. During macroplastic sampling immediately after the flood event, and in the following two years, we found 617 of these buttertubs along the Dutch section of the Meuse river (~66 - 328 km downstream of the dairy company). We used the buttertubs as tracers for macroplastic transport in the period that includes the flood event, and the following two years. Within 20 days of the flood event, some of the buttertubs were transported ~328 km and were found close to the Rhine-Meuse-Delta. However, the majority of buttertubs was transported less than 100 km within these 20 days, with an average transport distance between 9.75 - 18.25 km/day. Over the following two years the average transport distance decreased to 0.23 km/day. Which could imply that the buttertubs either were only transported across smaller distances in the following two years, or even not remobilized at all after being deposited during the flood event. Some of the buttertubs we also collected, and we investigated their mass and fragmentation development over time. In this unique opportunistic study, we found that the buttertubs mean transport distance moved downstream over the course of two years. The majority of them however, was deposited rather close to their emission point, even given the extreme flood situation.

Diverse stakeholders in rural landscapes commonly have distinct and often conflicting needs and interests for the available water resources resulting in complex human-water interactions, especially in water-scarce regions. In such landscapes, resolving conflicting interests among individual viewpoints and moving toward collective human–water perspectives is paramount to achieving sustainable management of decreasing water resources. Serious games have been proposed as participatory tools for (social) learning in contested landscapes, however the impact of such approaches on learning is understudied. This study addresses this knowledge gap by evaluating the ENGAGE (Exploring New Gaming Approach to Guide and Enlighten) game as a tool for fostering collective human–water perspectives. The Upper Ewaso Ng’iro basin in Kenya was selected as the study area for its complex social-ecological dynamics, characterized by the interplay of climatic variability, competing water demands, and governance challenges that shape water resource management. Through five game sessions, participants’ perspectives were assessed at three points in time: pre-game, post-game, and post-post-game, using the Q-method. Findings indicate that serious gaming enhanced awareness of catchment-scale water challenges, particularly the influence of geographic location, economic drivers, and illegal water abstractions on water availability. While immediate post-game assessments showed shifts in perspectives, long-term follow-ups revealed partial reversion to pre-game opinions, emphasizing the need for sustained engagement. This study contributes to the literature on complex human–water interactions by demonstrating the potential of serious gaming in promoting experiential learning and stakeholder engagement in water governance. The findings are relevant for socio-hydrological scientists, water resource managers, and policymakers seeking innovative approaches to conflict resolution and sustainable water management.

Droughts have an increasing impact on the entire European continent. As the frequency and intensity of droughts rise in many parts of Europe, the implementation of effective drought adaptation and mitigation strategies becomes increasingly important. However, it is not known how diverse tools are used in drought management with increasing drought severity. This study explores the role of Decision Support Tools (DSTs) in strategic and operational drought management in the Netherlands. Through a survey among national and regional water authorities, this study shows the increasing reliance of water managers on field measurements, Data Information Systems (DISs), stakeholder consultation, and legislation with increasing drought severity. Weather forecasts and expert knowledge remain important throughout all drought management phases. Despite the increased use of DISs with drought severity, the use of hydrological models does not follow the same trend. DISs, which often incorporate hydrological models, reveal a ‘hidden’ use of these models. Rather than serving as ‘key artifacts’ for modelers, they become active ‘participants’ in broader data systems during advanced phases of drought management. All these aspects influence key responsibilities in model use including appropriateness and transferability, reproducibility, and transparency. These factors are critical to consider when aiming to bridge the gap between science and policy in the application and development of DSTs.

Plastic pollution is considered a global environmental challenge, prompting international regulation efforts such as the UN plastic treaty to end plastic pollution. River basins, with high population densities and poor waste management, are particularly exposed to plastic pollution. Floods amplify plastic presence in rivers by mobilizing previously deposited and introduce new plastics. Yet, the fate of these mobilized plastics remains unclear, with observations suggesting either downstream export or floodplain deposition. This study assesses flood impact on plastic deposition along river floodplains, using data from fifteen events — five floods and ten non-flood conditions — across two Dutch rivers. Non-flood conditions were defined as events with return periods below bankfull discharge, while floods exceeded this threshold (1.5-year return period). Higher flood return periods increased plastic deposition, with the two largest floods depositing two to three times more plastic than non-flood conditions. Deposition mechanisms varied by flood type. Obstruction-based deposition dominated during an extreme summer flood (summer 2021 in the Meuse), when plastics mainly accumulated in inundated vegetation. Low-energy deposition prevailed during a long winter flood (winter 2024 in the IJssel), with high plastic concentrations found in wide floodplain sections where flow velocities decreased. Floodplain characteristics, hydrological conditions and proximity to plastic sources drive the plastic depositional patterns on floodplains. Flood severity and plastic entry into the environment are both projected to increase. We therefore expect an even more prominent role of floods in the global distribution of plastic pollution.

Compound extremes such as compound dry-hot events (CDHEs) have received more attention in the last decade due to their more devastating impacts than those caused by droughts or heatwaves separately. A daily-resolution CDHE index, i.e., compound dry-hot index daily (CDHId), based on the copula and conditional probability is proposed to identify dry and hot days to quantify the CDHE severity. Standardized precipitation index (SPI), standardized temperature index (STI), and CDHId are used to explore the spatial-temporal variations of droughts, heatwaves, and CDHEs in China from 1961 to 2020. Results show that CDHEs occurred more frequently after the period from the late 1970s to the early 1980s. Northeast China, Southwest China, and the Tibetan Plateau witnessed the most significant increases in CDHEs. CDHEs are further classified into two types based on the sequential order of the drought and heatwave occurrence, and the drought-preceded CDHEs accounted for 85.2% of all events, indicating that CDHEs were more likely to be induced by antecedent dry conditions. Stronger land-atmosphere coupling was observed both prior to and during CDHEs compared to periods under non-dry-hot conditions, which played a major role in the formation of CDHE at the local and short-time scale. However, the annual variation of CDHE frequency in multi-decades was dominated by heatwaves, with a more significant direct path coefficient than droughts over China. Overall, the increase and enhancement of CDHEs since the early 1980s were consistent with global warming.

Model results can have far-reaching societal implications, requiring fit-for-purpose models. However, model output is resulting from a particular path chosen with each modelling decision. We interviewed fourteen modellers in the Dutch water management sector in order to study how decision support hydrodynamic modellers make modelling decisions. An inductive-content analysis was performed. We identified eight motivation-categories. Individual and team considerations mostly motivate modelling decisions. We identified patterns between the motivation-categories and their occurrence across modelling steps. Modelling decisions during model implementation were found to be more in the modeller’s direct sphere of influence, while decisions concerning model structure and data selection more outside of it. So, even though modellers can leave their fingerprint, their sphere of influence and thus their fingerprint’s clarity is bound by institutionalised predefined decisions. Thus, models and their results are shaped within a broader sphere than the modeller’s alone, requiring a broader consideration of organisations and standards.

This study employed an operational monitoring network to measure soil moisture and runoff behaviour continuously in the Alpine catchment Geroldsbach-Gotzens, Austria. We hypothesize that afforestation can have a positive impact on soil water buffering. To analyse the impact of soil properties and vegetation cover changes on soil water dynamics, four experimental plots were established on grassland and monitoring stations were installed in the forest. The rainfall test site is equipped with an automatic weather station to obtain meteorological observations, and weirs to measure surface runoff of natural occurring precipitation events and artificial rainfall simulations. In the plots, 200 soil moisture sensors were installed at five different depths, aimed to track and visualize infiltration and subsurface flow processes. Another twenty sensors monitored soil moisture at different afforestation stages in the forested part of the catchment. The measurements show that soils covered with young and old-growth forest have a higher and more stable soil moisture content than grassland and soils with a lack of vegetation throughout the seasons. We observed large spatial differences at plot scale, where the spatial variability of soil moisture increases with depth and is highest during convective precipitation. The initial conditions and rainfall characteristics play an important role in infiltration processes and soil water storage. Our rainfall test site demonstrated the challenges of innovative monitoring techniques and that it offers opportunities for more experiments to gather evidence-based data as input for flood models. Overall findings confirm the sponge effect of forest soils and indicate that afforestation as Nature-Based Solution reduces the temporal soil moisture variability, buffering soil water during precipitation events, which can be beneficial for runoff reduction in Alpine catchments.