Abstract: Soil water is the connection of surface water and groundwater.It is of great significance in the formation,transformation and consumption of the water resources and has close relationship with agriculture,hydrology and environment etc., so that the soil water research has been drawn more and more attention and made great progress.The main achievements of the soil water research are as follows.(1) Soil water research is of interdiscipline characteristic,such as coupled water,heat and salt transfer,water transfer in freezing soil, water and heat transfer in soil-plant-atmosphere continuum(SPAC).(2) The mechanisms of soil water movement were studied deeply,such as siol water potential flow,measurement and determination of soil water parameters spatial distribution of siol water parameters. (3) Advanced numerical simulations were introduced in soil water research,such as finite analysis method,characteristic finite element method,and alternating direction finite element method.(4) Results of soil water research have been applied widely,such as the assessment of water resources,the study of the relationship between crop and soil water and the assessment of water environment.