Welcome to the WEB version of "esa World of Water" ISBN 978-3-903073-00-5, European Space Agency ESA and Globe View GmbH.

Following on from the World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg in 2002, the “World of Water” atlas aims at raising people’s awareness of the importance of water and its management. Using up-to-date satellite data, the atlas highlights a number of the most crucial aspects of the resource, whether exemplifying global  dimensions or revealing regional or local effects.
The atlas does not attempt to be a scientific publication but strives to appeal to everyone and deliver background knowledge. It implies that sustainability is better attained by us joining forces with the environment rather than by us fighting against it.
As information technology has become more widely distributed, water issues have also come under closer focus in IT research and development activities. Now, Earth observation through satellites can be considered an indispensable tool to capture and visualise water issues on a lar-ger scale. In doing so, space technology has revealed a lack of institutional structures in the water industry. These are more vital than ever today, as water management ought to pursue an integrated approach forming the basis of multiple benefits and sustainability. If water resources were conceived as one big system together with Earth’s other reserves, they could be used far more economically. Satellite data provide a practical gateway for this approach.
The production of a complex book like ‘World of Water’ requires contributions from many sides. We would like to thank our partners from ESA for their commitment to this project and for providing support whenever requested. In particular we would like to thank Michael Rast and Fran-cesco Sarti and their team at ESRIN for backing our project, but also Juerg Lichtenegger and Peter Brøgger Sørensen for their valuable efforts in optimising the content of this book.

Mario Fest and Martin Unterdechler,
CEO´s Globe View GmbH.