Displacement experiments of bromide and two herbicides, isoproturon and metribuzin, were performed in unsaturated undisturbed soil cores sampled on a unique site under (i) conventional wheat/maize rotation, (ii) 10-year-old grassed strip and (iii) 80-year-old oak/chestnut forest. Steady state conditions at constant rainfall intensity were used to compare the effect of the different land uses on soil herbicide transport and dissipation parameters. For each herbicide, mobility was similar between grassed strip and cultivated soils while it was reduced in the forest soils. The descriptive and moment analyses of the experimental breakthrough curves of bromide and herbicides demonstrated a similar degree of physical non-equilibrium transport for the cropped and grassland soil columns, with transport ranging from a less intense physical non-equilibrium status to the complete physical equilibrium state for the forest soil columns. Chemical non-equilibrium transport was shown for the three situations. Degradation occurred in some columns as demonstrated by the elution of a metabolite of isoproturon. Previous data on sorption and degradation of isoproturon on the same soils were used to explain the differences observed in the analysis of the elution curves between grassed strip, forest and cultivated soil. Averaging Kd values from individual soil layers of each profile gave a satisfying understanding of isoproturon retardation factors. Sorption on soil organic matter was the main factor in herbicide mobility. However, other phenomena such as degradation and formation of non-extractable residues were involved in the differences observed in leached masses of isoproturon between the three situations.