Soil moisture sensors are used to characterize the hydrological requirements of biomass crops, which need to be cultivated in order to produce ethanol. Agronomists that specialize in biomass look at new ways to ferment crops to increase the ethanol yields. The goal is to be able to produce ethanol from not only the fermentation of the fruit, but the stems, leaves, and roots.

Monitoring soil moisture is an important input parameter into erosion prediction models. The water infiltration rate of soil is a function of soil moisture. If the soil is dry, the infiltration rate will be sufficient to prevent run off. Overland water flow may occur if rain events happen at a time when soil is saturated.

Regional drought can severely affect the economy and even lead to starvation in some areas of the world. With advances in computer processing and environmental modeling methods, scientists are beginning to understand regional water budgets and hydrological processes. An important input into drought forecasting models is changes in regional soil moisture. Long-term soil moisture data over large regions can be used to predict and characterize harmful droughts.

In western North America, a large percentage of the water used for irrigation comes from the melting snowpack. There is increasing concern that climate change will affect not only the depth of seasonal snowpack but when the snowmelt occurs. Soil represents a large reservoir for water storage under snowpack. For example, a larger than average snowpack will still result in low reservoir recharge if the soil is dry in the autumn. Monitoring soil moisture is a critical parameter for the estimation of reservoir recharge. The USDA SNOTEL program has hundreds of sites in the US monitoring soil moisture for reservoir recharge models.

Each year, millions of dollars in damage to property and lives are lost due to landslides due to changes in land use. The inputs to landslide prediction models are slope, vegetation, toe slope, soil cohesiveness, and soil moisture. In some areas that experience perched water tables, the soil is very heavy as it becomes saturated, thus becoming more influenced by gravity.

There are thousands of golf courses and sports playing fields worldwide that are regularly irrigated. Just as in any other type of crop production, over irrigation will waste water, energy, fertilizer and will generate run off that will negatively affect the surrounding environment. Soil moisture sensors are a crucial tool to help optimize irrigation of sports turf.