How important water is for our civilisation often only becomes clear in crises. Not only droughts and floods, but also excessive temperatures are dangerous when they tip the ecological balance in lakes and rivers or restrict power plant operations because cooling water can no longer be used. And water is not only necessary in the household or for plant growth in our fields, but also as a basic material for industrial processes. Furthermore, water plays a central role in the Earth system, for example as a regulator for the Earth's energy balance or as an important factor in the formation of ore deposits.

The new issue of the GFZ journal "System Earth" shows some of the important contributions of the geosciences to the topic of water: It is about forests and groundwater, about deposits, about water as an important regulatory element for the world climate and as an architect of the landscape. We also deal with water as a risk factor and, last but not least, we present our water meter in space.

This and all previous issues of System Earth are permanently available online here.