Abstract. For evaluating the functional consequences of soils having different structural status, soil profiles representing 3 sites and two cultivation variants were studied by conventional and new techniques, such as tension infiltrometer method and parametrization of the water retention characteristic (WRC) curves. The soil types chosen represent heavy texture alluvial and salt affected soils of the Great Hungarian Plain. The salt affected soil represents structural degradation due to salinity/alkalinity as well. The differences between cultivated and uncultivated soil variants proved to be insignificant. The conventional methods were not distinctive enough, with the exception of bulk density, which showed good agreement with the tillage practice. On the contrary, the applied measurement and interpretation techniques reflect the expected major differen­ces. These preliminary results of the Hungarian case study show the indirect methods somewhat more effective than the direct ones in studying soil structure. The applied new techniques might enrich the tools for studying the structural status of soils.