In response to changing stress fields sedimentary basins experience deformation the mode of which may be decisively influenced by the presence of internal rheological heterogeneities as the presence of salt layers or of structural inheritance. Methods used to quantify the influence of such factors comprise subsidence analysis and paleo-stress analysis as well as structural restoration including 3D backstripping with salt redistribution. To assess the general processes that govern the subsidence of basins, comparative studies are required that evaluate the subsidence pattern of basins in different plate-tectonic settings in time and space.