Kapitel: 1.3 Wasserkreislauf und Wasserbilanz

Hydrological cycle and water balance – A global survey:

The hydrologic cycle is the main phenomenon of hydrology. Only water, mostly drinking water, will be renewed in this cycle very quick and continuous. Gigantic quantities of water are present, from which the hydrologic cycle takes the water. The history of hydrologic cycle is very long and interesting. The knowledge of hydrologic cycle in form of today was born in the renaissance.

So Leonardo da Vinci is named »father of the science of water«. Now in beginning of the 20th century E. Brückner presented the first water balance of the Earth (1905). The newest water balance is the water balance from R. K. Klige et al. from 1998, published in 2000. She is shown also in a scheme of hydrologic cycle.