The availability and the quality of water is exposed to substantial hazards due to changed conditions in Germany, Europe and worldwide. Interdisciplinary approaches are required to provide a basis for the establishment of water systems which are tolerant to external stress and are able to recover a good system state after such disturbances. Such systems are referred to as "resilient." In order to provide sustainable solutions for a more direct use and management of resilient water systems, a variety of physical, chemical and biological aspects and feedbacks must be captured and transferred into appropriate technical and economic courses of action. The research focus "Resilient water systems under dynamic stress" addresses this problem by means of close collaboration of natural sciences, engineering and social sciences. By this necessary technologies and courses of action for the establishment of fault and damage tolerant water systems shall be developed.