Mapping the dark matter with weak gravitational lensing

The developments summarized with the name "weak gravitational lensing" have led to exciting possibilities to study the (statistical properties of the) dark matter distribution in the Universe. Concentrating on those aspects which require deep wide field imaging surveys, I will describe the basic principles of weak lensing and discuss its future application (a) to determine the statistical properties of the dark matter halos of individual galaxies, (b) to measure the power spectrum of the matter distribution in the Universe, (c) to measure the bias parameter and investigate its dependence on scale and/or redshift, and (d) to detect mass (dark) concentrations from their mass properties alone.