Fresh water is a key resource for human life, natural and agricultural ecosystems, and many aspects of societal and economic systems. Climate change will affect the availability and the quality of fresh water particularly, through altering the characteristics and frequency of extremes such as droughts and flooding. This in turn puts the functioning of water-related sectors and ecosystem services at risk. This special issue focuses on water-related risks in the Berlin–Brandenburg region.

The special issue topics include, but are not be limited to:

• Vulnerability of human-environment systems to water-related hazards and availability of good quality water.
• Sustainable water resource management and solution for making human-environment systems more resilient to water-related hazards.
• Forms of governance to cope with emerging challenges and how solutions can be implemented.
• Public awareness, legal issues, administrative constraints and appropriate adaptation practices.

Review process: all papers of this special issue underwent the regular interactive peer-review process of Natural Hazards and Earth System Sciences handled by guest editors designated by the NHESS executive editors.