Abstract: Soil moisture is a main factor limiting vegetation restoration in semi-arid region.In this paper,the spatial variability of different layers soil moisture after raining at the forest-grassland boundary in hilly area of Loess Plateau were studied by traditional and geostatistical analysis methods.The results showed that the moisture content in surface (0～10 cm) and subsurface soil layer (10～20 cm) of grassland was higher than that of forestland.The two layers soil moisture content at forest-grassland boundary showed a small variation but an obvious ecological distribution.By using moving split-window techniques,it was obtained that the width of edge influence in surface and subsurface layer was 8 and 6 m,respectively.Geostatistical analyses showed that the spatial distribution of two layers soil moisture had a pure nugget effect in grassland,linear model in forestland,and spherical model in forest-grassland boundary.The spatial heterogeneity of two layers soil moisture was higher at forest-grassland boundary than at forestland and grassland, which had a stronger spatial dependence and autorelation.Kriging maps expressed the spatial structural characters.The distribution of soil moisture in two layers showed a strip shape near forest edge,and a patch shape far from the edge.