AbstractThe implementation of tropical forest management has led to changes in forest structure and increased surface disturbances due to logging activities. Different forest treatments are suspected to affect soil hydraulic properties in different ways. We investigated the impact of an intensive forest management system (IFMS) on soil hydraulic properties including infiltration characteristics and soil compaction. Infiltration characteristics and soil compaction were measured for four types of surface disturbances (line planting, cleared area, logged area, and skidder tracks) between different periods of operation of an IFMS. The fundamental activities associated with mechanized selective logging and intensive line planting reduced soil hydraulic properties, including infiltration capacity and soil compaction within the near-surface soil profile. Ground-based harvesting using a skidder tractor significantly increased the rate of soil compaction, which influenced the infiltration capacity. Recent forest operations significantly disturbed the soil surface (via compaction and topsoil/subsoil mixing) and produced large variation in the near- surface values. Infiltration capacity values were lower on skidder tracks than other disturbed surface types. The changes in infiltration capacity and soil compaction are evidence that forest disturbances have altered the surface hydrological pathways, thereby creating an opportunity for surface runoff flow to be generated on disturbed sites. Concurrent with succession to forested land cover, an increase in infiltrability reduces the propensity to generate surface runoff flow. The estimated recovery time for near-surface of soil hydraulic properties on the non-skidder tracks was 10–15 years, while in the skidder tracks it was more than 20 years.