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Hydropedologic approaches utilize a strategy of “map first, then design” and “direction first, then velocity” in enhancing the understanding of complex landscape processes. This is illustrated in this study by examples dealing with (i) the mapping of soils and landforms in monitoring and interpreting soil moisture dynamics and (ii) the identification of flow pathways in determining landscape water fluxes. Year-round monitoring at 77 sites in the Shale Hills Catchment in central Pennsylvania revealed a temporal stability of soil moisture spatial pattern as governed by soil types and landforms, and suggested the significance of subsurface preferential flow in rapid channeling of precipitation to stream discharge. The five soil series identified in the catchment had the following decreasing trend of moisture storage within the upper 1.1-m solum: Ernest > Blairton ≥ Rushtown ≥ Berks > Weikert. The four landform units …