Soil moisture plays a significant role in the global hydrological cycle, which is an important component of soil parameterization. Remote sensing is one of the most important methods used to estimate soil moisture. In this study, we developed a new nonlinear Erf-BP neural network method to establish a soil-moisture-content-estimation model with integrated multiple-resource remote-sensing data from high-resolution, hyperspectral and microwave sensors. Next, we compared the result with the single-resource remote-sensing data for SMC (soil-moisture content) estimation models by using the linear-fitting method. The results showed that the soil-moisture estimation model offers better accuracy by using multiple-resource remote-sensing data. Furthermore, the SMC predicted the results by using the new Erf-BP neural network with multiple-resource remote-sensing data and a good overall correlation coefficient of 0.6838. Compared with the linear model’s estimation results, the accuracy of the SMC estimation using the Erf-BP method was increased, and the RMSE decreased from 0.017 g/g to 0.0146 g/g, a decrease of 16.44%. These results also indicate that the improved algorithm of the Erf-BP artificial neural network has better fitting results and precision. This research provides a reference for multiple-resource remote-sensing data for soil-moisture estimation.

Soil moisture is one of the most important components of all the soil properties affecting the global hydrologic cycle. Optical remote sensing technology is one of the main parts of soil moisture estimation. In this study, we promote a soil moisture-estimating method with applications regarding various soil organic matters. The results indicate that the soil organic matter had a significant spectral feature at wavelengths larger than 900 nm. The existence of soil organic matter would lead to darker soil, and this feature was similar to the soil moisture. Meanwhile, the effect of the soil organic matter on its reflectance overlaps with the effect of soil moisture on its reflected spectrum. This can lead to the underestimation of the soil moisture content, with an MRE of 21.87%. To reduce this effect, the absorption of the soil organic matter was considered based on the Lambert–Beer law. Then, we established an SMC_g-estimating model based on the radiative transform theory while considering the effect of the soil organic matter. The results showed that the effect of the soil organic matter can be effectively reduced and the accuracy of the soil moisture estimation was increased, while MRE decreased from 21.87% to 6.53%.