Electrical resistivity is used in this study to assess the moisture content of concrete, because of their good correlation. A new process using four point probes to measure the electrical resistivity of concrete is described in this paper. It is based on the exploitation of the short circuit induced by the reinforcement in the concrete structure. A numerical model is also made to simulate the resistivity measurements on concrete by taking into account the electrochemical parameters of the reinforcement. The obtained results have shown the ability of the new measurement process to assess the gradient of the moisture content of the concrete cover. (C) 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.