Watershed models and associated tools have been continuously improving along with availability of new data to alleviate the increasing environmental concerns and the potential impacts to human society around the world. For example, Harmful Algal Blooms (HABs) in the Great Lakes Region (USA/Canada), soil erosion problems in Loess Plateau (Northern China), and scarcity of water resources in Africa. On the other hand, it is almost impossible to solve challenging tasks without considering cross-surface, cross-scale, or cross-spatial interactions, especially under the threat of global climate change. Compromises in model structure and measurement data are made not only during the modeling processes, but the corresponding water-food-energy nexus should be considered cooperatively. Since 2016, this modeling session has been initiated to provide broad discussions among international scientists from different disciplines. We hope mutual efforts in this session can advocate advanced insights for future investigation on both modeling development and the associated management strategies.