[en] The processes in the water-unsaturated zone have in the past received too little attention from hydrogeologists and their study by pedologists has been patchy. It is only recently that studies have been published, with for some part very diverse scientific approaches, which consider the water-unsaturated zone and the soil as a whole. There are small-scale and large-scale hydraulic approaches, hydraulic and first tracer-hydrological approaches. This poses the problem of how to transfer results obtained locally to larger spaces. Moreover, the homogeneity of substrates has been found to be such that hydraulic and tracer-hydrological approaches are unproblematic at the large scale, while at the small scale their results can only be interpreted with certain reservations. For example, this has led to findings of steady groundwater recharge at a large scale which contrast with findings at a smaller scale of a separation into highly variable matrix and bypass flows or into groundwater recharge and intermediate outflows. Studies at different levels of scale consequently bear different implications for material transport within and material export from specific landscape sections to underground or aboveground neighbouring compartments. The purpose of the present workshop on seepage water movement is to contribute to the establishment of facts on this issue, identify deficits, and stimulate future cooperation