Malin Falkenmark’s work pushed a shift in focus from water as a ‘good’ to water as the ‘bloodstream of the biosphere’. Her pioneering work has greatly influenced global understanding and policies related to water scarcity, land use, and water management. Pioneer on water researchProfessor Falkenmark is renowned for introducing multiple concepts. One of the best known is the Falkenmark ‘water stress index’, assessing the number of people that share an annually renewable source of freshwater. The Falkenmark index is one of the earliest, and most used indicators to measure and describe water availability for human use.