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Air permeability can be used to describe the structure of the soil but may also be used to predict saturated hydraulic conductivity. This raises the question of whether the two parameters exhibit the same degree of scale dependency. In this study the scale dependency of water permeability (saturated hydraulic conductivity, K w) and air permeability (k a, at a matric water potential of− 50 cm H 2 O) was tested at four different sites (three horizons at each site), by using two measurement scales (100 cm 3 and 6280 cm 3). No clear effect of scale on variability was observed. Air and water permeability displayed higher variabilities for two structured loamy soils compared with two sandy soils. For the more structured soils, the variability between measurements was lower for air compared with water permeability. Both air and water permeabilities were higher at the large scale compared with the small scale, but this scale …