AbstractAn empirical hyperbolic scale‐dependent dispersion model, which predicts a linear growth of dispersivity close to the origin and the attainment of an asymptotic dispersivity at large distances, is presented for deterministic modelling of field‐scale solute transport and the analysis of solute transport experiments. A simple relationship is derived between local dispersivity, which is used in numerical simulations of solute transport, and effective dispersivity, which is estimated from the analysis of tracer breakthrough curves. The scale‐dependent dispersion model is used to interpret a field tracer experiment by nonlinear least‐squares inversion of a numerical solution for unsaturated transport. Simultaneous inversion of concentration‐time data from several sampling locations indicates a linear growth of the dispersion process over the scale of the experiment. These findings are consistent with the results of an earlier analysis based on the use of a constant dispersion coefficient model at each of the sampli