The habilitation thesis summarizes the author's results in the field of determination and peculiarities of the hydric potential of the landscape at different spatial levels. It is compiled in the form of a review work - a set of published relevant works accompanied by comments on the most important results.It provides information on the influence of elements and components of the landscape on the precipitation-runoff process and on the effects of different ways and intensity of land use on water retention. It also deals with natural and anthropogenic processes that significantly affect the overall landscape´s hydric potential. It also presents the possibilities of using the hydric potential of the landscape - as a cumulative effect of the landscape or ecosystems in empirical models of the runoff process from the river basin.The presented findings point to the possibility of using ecosystems resp. landscape as an effective tool for river basin management and the elimination of the main problems associated with water resources - pollution, floods, drought and uneven distribution.