A key problem in soil physics at present is that some of the standard theories do not fully reflect the processes at the pore scale, and thus, cannot be adequately used for prediction. As such, examination of soil structure is vital for soil scientists. Solute transport studies are increasingly being used to characterise flow mechanisms in both the field and laboratory. Realisation that solutes move preferentially through soil (even considered to be the rule rather than the exception by some researchers) into groundwater's has meant that research in this area has increased in importance. This paper describes a multi-scale approach to quantitatively analyse transport mechanisms, using visualisation techniques which overcome some of the previous limitations associated with extrapolating data from soils stained with dye tracers. Chloride and Brilliant Blue tracers were applied to undisturbed soil cores (8000 cm3) fitted with time domain reflectometery probes (TDR) to examine the physical and morphological properties associated with preferential flow in a wide range of soil types. Following the collection of serial digital images, it was possible to examine and quantify the nature of the active water flow mechanisms in terms of dye-stained pathway and spatial distribution of dye concentration both in two and three dimensions using image analysis (see Figure 1). In addition, thin sections were used to provide a detailed description of structural architecture using quantified image analysis measurements that could be used to identify ‘triggers' of preferential flow, which ranged from root channels, earthworm chambers and textural / structural discontinuities. These relationships were further explored using X-ray Computed Tomography (at the macro and microscale) to obtain 3-D visualisations of soil pore architecture (Figure 2). Such information as to how a soil dynamically rewets is important both in terms of cultivation practice and pollution modelling. This is especially significant when considering a wetting mechanism, such as preferential flow, that cannot be adequately described by conventional soil physics. By combining techniques such as tracer concentration mapping and 3-D structural visualisation, the successful prediction of the multi-scale, heterogeneous processes of soil water flow may soon be realised.