Bulletin of Geography. Physical Geography Series, No. 12 (2017): 5–17 http://dx.doi.org/10.1515/bgeo-2017-0001 Hydrographic changes in a river system and their influence on the legal classification of watercourses, exemplified by selected ISSN 2080-7686 tributaries of the San river Katarzyna Kubiak-Wójcicka1*, Sławomir Brózda1, Agnieszka Sznajder2 1 Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toruń, Poland 2 Maria Curie Skłodowska University, Poland * Correspondence: Department of Hydrology and Water Management, Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toruń, Poland. E-mail: [email protected] Abstract. The paper presents hydrographic changes in a river system and their influence on the le- gal classification of watercourses in Poland. As a case study, the watercourse Motwica, right tribu- tary of the river San has been analysed. The main objective of this paper is an attempt to analyse whether the Motwica should be classified as flowing or standing water and the legal grounds for Key words: such classification in the Water Law Act. On the base of archival and contemporary cartographic ma- hydrographic changes, terials’ analysis it has been determined that the Motwica should not be classified as natural water- classification of watercources, course because its significant part flows in an artificial channel. the Water Law Act, Motwica Introduction and water-covered land. The current normative defi- nition of flowing and standing waters in Poland is considered to be imprecise. Kubiak-Wójcicka and Water resources are the most important compo- Marszelewski (2012) express a similar view, pointing nent of the geographic environment responsible for to the fact that from a hydrological perspective this the development of civilisation (Kowalczak 2008). division is artificial and does not reflect reality. This Various forms of water resource management ex- must therefore have consequences in evaluations ist, depending on the location of the resources. In of individual cases, particularly when a particular Poland, the act of law determining the principle of body has been subject to intense human activity. water management is the Water Law Act (Pol. Usta- River channels have been subjugated to the needs wa Prawo Wodne). of man, which has led to changes in the hydro- Inland surface waters in Poland, according to art. morphological system of watercourses, and hence 5 para. 3 of the Water Law Act of 18 July 2001 (con- to changes in the water relations throughout the solidated text in Journal of Laws of 2015, item 469 entire catchment. Changes in water relations have as amended) are divided into standing and flow- for many years been the subject of scientific stud- ing waters. From a legal standpoint this has conse- ies (Dynowska 1993; Kaniecki 2011). Most attention quences for, among others, the ownership of waters Bulletin of Geography. Physical Geography Series 2017. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution- -NonCommercial 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), permitting all non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. © 2017 Nicolaus Copernicus University. All rights reserved. © 2017 De Gruyter Open (on-line). Hydrographic changes in a river system and their influence on the legal classification … K. Kubiak-Wójcicka et al. has been given to changes in lake surfaces (Choiński cation may mislead both contemporary and future 1997; Czaja 1997; Marszelewski and Adam- users of those waters. czyk, 2004; Choiński and Ptak 2008; Czaja and Jańczak 2010; Kubiak-Wójcicka and Golba 2011; Ku- biak-Wójcicka and Lewandowska 2014, 2015) and to Study area the courses of river networks (Florek and Nadocz- na 1986; Wład 1998; Grabińska and Szymczyk 2012; Myga-Piętek 2003; Kubiak-Wójcicka and Kordowski As an example of an area in which numerous chang- 2015; Małecki and Ptak 2015). Despite the extensive es in individual watercourses have been made in a literature in this area there is a lack of studies on the relatively short period we can cite the catchment influence of changes to water relations on property of the watercourse currently known as the Motwi- rights to waters and related consequences. ca, and its neighbouring catchments of the Szkło Based on the Water Law Act of 18 July 2002, art. and the Szkło (old bed) (Pol. Szkło (Stare Koryto)). 1 para. 2 and 3, in the matter of inland surface wa- These are watercourses of the right-bank catchment ters or parts thereof constituting public property of the San river. From an administrative standpoint (Journal of Laws of 2003, no 16, item 149), on 17 they lie in the Jarosław district of the Podkarpac- December 2002 the Council of Ministers regulated kie voivodeship. inventories of inland waters significant to the form- The Motwica watercourse also goes by the name ing of water resources and protection against inun- of Mutwica. For the purposes of the current work dation, and waters significant to the engineering of the authors will use the name Motwica, as that hav- water relations for agricultural purposes. These wa- ing most universal currency. This watercourse is ters were listed in three appendices to that regula- 14.11 km long and has a catchment of 35.64 km2 tion. (Table 1). The Motwica issues into the San River It is impossible to ignore that this regulation, de- at kilometre 127.64 of the San’s course (Atlas po- spite 13 years having passed since its issuance, has działu hydrograficznego Polski 2005). The stream not been updated in any way. Based on studies and is marked as a surface water body (Pol. jednoli- expertise, the natural character of the water network ta część wód powierzchniowych (JCWP)) with the may be excluded, resulting in its character as a sys- code PLRW20001722554 and the name “Potok Mot- tem of flowing waters failing to be comprehended wica”. It is located in the Vistula basin, in the Upper in the Water Law Act. In this situation, a change Vistula water region under the Regional Water Man- in the classification of a water network from flow- agement Authority in Kraków. The combined water ing to standing water gives rise to specific legal con- body to which the Motwica belongs has the code sequences. It opens to civil-law transactions lands GW0814. The Motwica’s surface water body type is throughout this network which are covered by wa- “lowland sandy stream” (17) and has the status of a ters and which have been classified as standing wa- “natural water body”. The condition of the Motwi- ter. ca stream is defined as poor, while the evaluation of It must be highlighted once again that the prob- risk of not attaining environmental goals is “no risk”. lem of hydrographic changes relating to waters and There are no water gauge stations along the Motwica land covered by waters is still little represented from – it is an unmonitored watercourse. The average an- the standpoint of property law in the literature. nual discharge of the Motwica calculated from em- Changes in the classification of watercourses are not pirical formulae is 0.13 m3s-1. carried out in easily accessible regulations and in- Immediately neighbouring the Motwica stream ventories, and the hydrological expertise on whose in the San catchment are the river Szkło (old bed) basis a watercourse’s status is changed to standing and the Szkło (Table 1). The river Szkło (old bed) water has not been published. The cited hydrolog- flows into the San below the mouth of the Motwi- ical analyses conducted by expert witnesses in the ca, while the Szkło flows in above the mouth of the field of hydrology are to be found in the records of Motwica. So, the very names Szkło and Szkło (old individual court cases. Therefore, the lack of up-to- bed) suggest that the courses of these waters have date knowledge in the field of watercourse classifi- undergone changes (Fig. 1). 6 Citation: Bulletin of Geography. Physical Geography Series 2017, 12, http://dx.doi.org/10.1515/bgeo-2017-0001 K. Kubiak-Wójcicka et al. Hydrographic changes in a river system and their influence on the legal classification … The courses of the Motwica, Szkło and Szkło (old investors. On the one hand, the area is of impor- bed) are under the administration of The Podkar- tance for national administration due to its poten- packie Voivodeship Board of Land Amelioration tial for exploitation in the event of flood threats and, and Water Facilities. in this, securing the population against inundation. The Motwica has been classified as a public-prop- On the other, extraction of minerals (sand and grav- erty flowing surface water body significant to the el) by private investors also goes on in the Motwica engineering of water relations for agricultural pur- catchment. An expansion of extraction activities is poses (Appendix 2 of the Council of Ministers Reg- planned for the near future in the area, which is a ulation of 17 December 2002). subject of interest to commercial businesses. The river Szkło has been classified as an inland The Motwica is a case study for exploring the surface water body, or part thereof, constituting legal consequences of hydrographic changes in the public property significant to the formation of wa- light of the provisions of the Water Law Act. De- ter resources and flood protection (Appendix 1 of termination of the current nature of the Motwica – the Council of Ministers Regulation of 17 Decem- whether it is a natural or artificial watercourse, or a ber 2002). water facility as part of a drainage system, requires This paper focuses on the Motwica watercourse. analysis not only of its course, but also of the source Initial field observations show that different stretch- of the waters it bears.