A Simplified Model to Estimate Soil Water Characteristic Curve from Basic Soil Properties for Shrink-Swell Soils, Case in Bahir Dar, Ethiopia. Expansive soils or shrink-swell soils are soils that, because of their mineralogical compositions, experience large volume changes when subjected to moisture changes. The soil water characteristic curve describes a relationship between the soils gravimetric or volumetric or degree of saturation and matric suction. Many researchers have proposed models to predict soil water characteristic curves from easily measured soil properties because the measurement of these curves is costly and time consuming. Most of the available models are developed for soils in temperate regions where climate-related properties are different. In this study, models for predicting the gravimetric water content and degree of saturation soil water characteristic curves for shrink-swell soils in Bahir dar city from easly to measured soil properties have been proposed. The models are based the widely used soil water characteristic curves fitting function by Fredlund and Xing (1994). The basic soil properties of eighteen soil samples obtained from Bahir dar city were determined through the use of laboratory tests. Shrinkage curve data points were obtained using shrinkage curve test and were fitted with the Fredlund et al.(2002) shrinkage curve fitting equation. gravimetric soil water characteristic curve data points of the soils were also determined from pressure plate tests and were fitted with Fredlund and Xing (1994) and the fitting parameters were determined. The degree of saturation soil water characteristic curve data points were established by combining the gravimetric soil water characterstic curve and the shrinkage curve data. The established degree of saturation soil water characteristic curve data points fitted with Fredlund and Xing (1994) the corresponding fitting parameters were determined. The obtained fitting parameters were correlated with the basic properties of soils using multiple linear regression analysis. Two sets of models of fitting parameters were established first, considering the fitting parameters related to gravimetric soil water characteristic curve and the other was considering the fitting parameters related to degree of saturation soil water characteristic curve. The models have been verified by applying them to four soils data in the validation datasets, which were not included in developing the model. The proposed model for gravimetric water content soil water characteristic curve showed better predictions than the existing prediction models. It is suggested that the models can be used to estimate the preliminary drying soil water characteristic curves of shrink-swell soils found in Bahir dar city. Keywords: Soil water characteristic curve; Shrinkage curves; Matric suction; Gravimatric water content; Degree of Saturation