Soil-vegetation-atmosphere interaction for engineering applications: Recent multi-scale and multi-disciplinary insights

The paper presents some of both recent and previous outcomes on soil-vegetation-atmosphere mechanisms and processes. Contributions from several authors across different scientific fields, each focusing on specific aspects of soil and plant behaviour under variable climatic conditions, highlight the urgency of multi- and inter-disciplinarily research aimed at the investigation, analysis, and modelling of soil-vegetation-atmosphere (SVA) interaction. The paper focuses on different aspects of such interaction, which plays the crucial role of a thermo-hydro-mechanical boundary condition acting at the ground surface and controlling the transient behaviour of every geotechnical system. Some specific remarks and novel aspects of such interaction, analysed at increasing levels of complexity, are depicted in the paper through a multi-disciplinary point of view and according to a multi-scale methodology.