Our environment is changing at unprecedented rates because of climate change and direct human activities, posing serious threats to agricultural and other land systems, as well as to people (e.g. floods, droughts, landslides, water and food insecurity). The RITA research group at the University of Milan (Department of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences) is a multidisciplinary team combining novel agro-forestry monitoring techniques and hydrological modelling to study the water dynamics in soil-vegetation-atmosphere systems towards a more sustainable water resources management approach in urban, agricultural and mountainous settings.