规定的方法适用于所有类型的土壤样品。对于风干土壤样品（例如根据ISO 11464预处理的样品）和现场潮湿土壤样品，规定了不同的程序。其原理是在105°C下将土壤样品干燥至恒定质量，并使用干燥程序前后土壤质量的差异，以质量为基础计算干物质和水分含量。关于以体积为基础测定土壤含水量，请参考ISO 11461。

The method specified can be applied to all types of soil samples. Different procedures are specified for air-dried soil samples, e.g. samples pretreated according to ISO 11464, and for field-moist soil samples. Its principle is drying soil samples to constant mass at 105 °C and using the difference in mass of an amount of soil before and after the drying procedure to calculate the dry matter and water contents on a mass basis. For the determination of soil water content on a volume basis, refer to ISO 11461.