Spatial Variability of Physical and Chemical Properties of River Water in the Upper Parsęta Catchment During Rising Spring Flows

The paper discusses the spatial variability of the physical and chemical properties of river water in the upper Parseta catchment (West Pomerania, Poland) during rising spring flows. Making use of data generated by 6 hydrochemical surveys, the studied waters were classified based on so-called fuzzy clustering methodology and attempts were made to interpret their spatial distribution. The obtained results show that during spring rising flows meteorological and hydrological conditions present in the period prior to sampling have a major impact on the water chemistry of the upper Parseta catchment. These prior conditions significantly weaken the spatial variability of lithological and hydrogeological characteristics which is clearly perceptible in the case of low outflows.