Soil water balance in Germany

The water penetrating the soil is of utmost importance for the soil as well as for the environment and for humans. Soils store water and they can also make it available to the plants in a time-delayed manner. How much water the different soils can deliver depends on the soil properties. Part of the precipitation leaves the root zone as percolating water and contributes to groundwater recharge. With the water, nutrients and pollutants are transported in the soil. The theme maps of soil water balance in Germany are based on the landuse stratified soil map of Germany 1:1,000,000 (BUEK1000N), the Digital Elevation Model DGM50 of the German Federal Agency for Cartography and Geodesy (BKG), climatic information of the German Meteorological Service (DWD) for the period 1961-1990 as well as on land use data from the data set CORINE Landcover 2006 (UBA).