  The high spatial and spectral resolution offered by the new generation of
infrared spectrometers at ESO is optimally suited for the observational study
of outflows from young stellar objects. Models of interstellar shock waves
would benefit from observations of spectrally resolved line profiles. This
applies also to attempts of measuring the rotation rates of jets very close to
their driving source, which in general suffer considerable extinction.
Observations of forbidden lines of ionised iron, [Fe II], could be used to
accomplish this. The possibility of using rotational lines of molecular
hydrogen, H2, to study the temporal evolution of outflow and disk gas is
discussed. Similarly, high resolution IR observations of fluorescent water
lines, H2O, open up the possibility to access outflow and disk water.
