The transfer of pesticides from agricultural soils to food and drinking water is a huge environmental problem in many countries. Robust approaches to identify, characterize and quantify the dissipation of pesticides in soils at the field scale are scarce. A relatively mature tool to study industrial pollutants in groundwater is multi-elemental compound-specific isotope analysis (ME-CSIA) which may help to follow-up pesticide residues in soils. Direct adaptation to soils is challenging because pesticide concentrations are generally low, and soil constituents may hamper chromatographic separation and accurate analysis of pesticide residues.We reviewed recent literature on ME-CSIA as an approach to improve the evaluation of sources and transformations of synthetic pesticides in agricultural soils. First, we discuss current extraction and purification techniques for pesticides in soils. Then, the analytical techniques for reliable measurements of the stable isotope composition of the pesticides are examined. Five hundred and fortyseven isotopic compositions for seventy-one active molecules and issued from different pesticide manufacturers were retrieved and listed in a database, for the following isotopes: 13 C (61%), 15 N (14%), 37 Cl (14%), and 2 H (11%). This unique database reflects the overall isotopic variability and trackability of pesticide residues in the environment. Since the environmental fate of pesticides is governed by multiple transformation processes, including bio-and photodegradation, and other abiotic degradations, isotope fractionation values were retrieved from the peer-reviewed literature. This results in a catalogue of two hundred seventy fractionation values for thirty-three compounds to guide the interpretation of isotopic fractionation in the environment, including legacy pesticides such as atrazine, lindane, dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane, chlordecone and organophosphorus compounds. Specific transformation processes may be identified and quantified using the Rayleigh concept for isotope fractionation during reaction. The review article summarizes existing modelling approaches and future trends to predict the reactive transport of pesticides in soils and associated hydrological systems.