water balance

Water

Stabilizing our Landscape Water Balance

Poor harvests due to heat and drought

The landscape water balance is out of equilibrium: Straightened rivers, sealed soils, and drained peatlands retain too little water in the landscape. The consequences: drought, declining groundwater levels, and flooding. The solutions: retain water through adapted land management, give rivers more space, allow floodplains to flood, and manage land and soil in a climate-resilient way. read more

Umwelt-Indikator

Indicator: Using water resources

A graph shows the water exploitation index for the years 1991 to 2022. Values are available for every three or four years. The index fell almost constantly and has been below the critical value of 20 percent since 2007. This presentation is based on the long-term potential water supply of 176 billion m³.

A water exploitation index of 20 % or above indicates the threshold of water stress.Water stress means an increasing risk of environmental problems and economic difficulties.Since 2007 the water exploitation index has been below the critical level of 20 %; in 2022 it was at 10,1 %.Germany is causing water exploitation in other parts of the world by importing goods. In some regions this can contrib... read more

The Umweltbundesamt

For our environment