Abstract: Improved understanding of soil water flow and solute transport in the presence of water table lays a solid foundation for solving environmental and ecological problems such as soil salinization and groundwater contamination. Numerical models based on the governing equations of soil water flow and solute transport were important tools to study soil water flow and solute transport. On the basis of analysis of relationship between soil water and groundwater, the paper emphasized that the function of groundwater should be coupled into models of soil water flow and solute transport when the depth of groundwater is less than the threshold of water table depth. The paper reviewed the methods of integration, and analyzed their advantages and disadvantages. The paper also dealt with the determination of soil hydrologic properties and possible upscale approaches from local scale to field scales for the models of soil water flow and solute transport.