Acknowledgements
The author considers it his duty to express his sincere gratitude to his colleagues,
workers of SHI. Due to their great efforts it became possible to obtain new data on the
dynamics of water resources of the Earth and their use. Among them are heads of
laboratories of SHI: Prof Vladimir I. Babkin and Dr. Vladimir Yu. Georgiyevsky; senior
scientists: Dr. Tamara Ye. Grigorkina, Dr. Natalia V. Penkova, Dr. Irena P. Zaretskaya;
scientists: Anna V. Izmailova and Valentina P. Yunitsyna; leading engineers: Tatiana V.
Grube, Irena A. Nikiforova, Tatiana I. Printseva, Elena L. Skoryatina and Valentina G.
Yanuta.