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The article deals with the techniques of soil water content determination using microwave radiation. Its practical application would allow solving the problems of resource efficiency in geotechnical survey due to reduction of energy and resource intensity of laboratory analysis as well as its acceleration by means of decreasing labour intensity and, as a result, cost reduction. The article presents a detail analysis of approaches to soil water content determination and soil drying, considers its features and application. The study in soil of different composition, typical for Western Siberia including organic and organic-mineral ones, is a peculiarity of the given article, which makes it rather topical. The article compares and analyzes the results of the investigation into soil water content, which are obtained via conventional techniques and the original one developed by the authors, consisting in microwave drying. The authors also give recommendation on microwave technique application to dry soil.

The problem of rapid drying arises when determining moisture, ash and organic matter content, as well as during many other soil tests. For highly-organic and organo-mineral peat soils the problem of advanced measurement of moisture content is of special importance, since after reweighing the dry sample increase in mass may be observed. The article examines the methods in determining the moisture content in peat and organic soils via microwave radiation, which will greatly speed up the process, simplify the complexity and cost of laboratory tests. The paper presents a detailed review of the methods determining moisture content in soils and characteristics, as well as application scope. The work contains the research results on moisture organic soils: drying in a microwave oven and the current domestic standards.