Our planet's rivers are like our planet's arteries. They're woven across the globe in intricate networks, ferrying life-sustaining freshwater around the world. Rivers aren't just our own lifelines, providing us with the drinking water we need to survive, but their freshwater reserves are also the primary lifelines of 10 percent of all known animals and half of all known fish species, helping sustain healthy and diverse ecosystems. They are, in short, the most renewable, accessible and thus sustainable storehouses of freshwater we have.
Yet, humans have a surprisingly limited understanding of how much water Earth’s rivers hold and how fast that water moves — two features key to managing our planet's precious freshwater resource.
