The overall objective of this seminar is to work on future perspectives on the putative 'free' and 'guaranteed' access to water and proper ecosystem functioning. It is examined, how ecosystems will support the provision of sufficient and clean water around the world and how water availability, use and security will change until 2050 and will cope with a predicted world population of 10 billion people. We aim to identify possible strategies for dealing with water use and ecosystem functioning today and in the future - worldwide. We will look at the challenges through a climatological and ecological lens and will also investigate how water influences migratory movements.