Dielectric model of bound water in wet soils for microwave remote sensing

At present, modelling of dielectric properties of bound water in soil encounters significant obstacles. There are two main reasons: great variety of classifications of water in soils existing and controversial data on physical properties of water in contact with soil particles. Classifying soil water, specialists of different fields propose different approaches taking as principal one or another feature of water and soil interaction. Classification differences lead to different ways of estimation of the volume of bound water in soils for electrodynamic models of soils: from one monomolecular layer of water covering soil particles to all non-gravity water in soil. As to physical characteristics of water, it is known, that the closer it is to the surface of a body, the more distorted its structure is compared to the structure of free water and ice. Such structural distortions induce changes in water physical properties. However, available data on those characteristics are very controversial. The authors believe, that determination of the volume of bound water in soils for electrodynamic models should be based on soil water dielectric properties and water should be considered bound if its permittivity differs from that of free water.