Influence of academic education on the perception of wood in watercourses

Journal of Environmental Management 90 (2009) 587e603www.elsevier.com/locate/jenvman

Influence of academic education on the perceptionof wood in watercourses

Bart1omiej Wy _zga a,*, Joanna Zawiejska b, Yves-Francois Le Lay c

a Institute of Nature Conservation, Polish Academy of Sciences, al. Mickiewicza 33, 31-120 Krakow, Polandb Institute of Geography, Pedagogical University, ul. Podchora_zych 2, 30-084 Krakow, Poland

c Universite de Lyon, CNRS-UMR 5600 ‘‘Environnement-Ville-Societe’’, 18 rue Chevreul, 69362 Lyon cedex 07, France

Received 11 May 2007; received in revised form 12 November 2007; accepted 9 December 2007

Available online 8 February 2008

Abstract

Human perception of in-channel wood can influence decision-making about wood reintroduction in watercourses for restoration purposes. Aquestionnaire survey was conducted among first-year and advanced Polish students and professionals involved in the management and protectionof watercourses in Poland. The purpose was to assess their perception of river scenes with and without wood in terms of naturalness, aesthetics,danger and need for improvement. Generally, students perceived riverscapes with wood to be less aesthetic, more dangerous and needing moreimprovement than riverscapes without wood. However, many aspects of the riverscape perception are subject to changes as the student prog-resses in studying. The culturally conditioned, negative perception of in-channel wood is reduced during the education of geography and biologystudents but enhanced in the course of water engineering studies. The improved perception of watercourses containing wood was most pro-nounced for the advanced geography students from a university in which some tutors conducted research on in-channel wood and couldhave transferred knowledge about and positive attitudes toward wood to their students. A comparison of the riverscape evaluation by biologystudents and national park managers indicates that education in the discipline facilitates understanding of the environmental significance of in-channel wood although its effects are highly insufficient to form the positive attitude toward wood-containing watercourses typical of themanagers. In turn, the education of water engineering students about in-channel wood apparently dominantly emphasizes threats caused byits presence in watercourses, so that the students’ highly negative attitude toward wood needs to be significantly moderated when the graduatesbegin working as water authority managers.� 2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Keywords: Academic education; Riverscape perception; In-channel wood; River management

1. Introduction

Fallen trees in river channels have long been considereda problem in management of watercourses because of the risksof increasing flood levels by jammed wood pieces and damageto bridges or other infrastructures by floated wood (Shieldsand Nunnally, 1984). As a result, accumulations of woodhave commonly been cleared from channels. However, exten-sive research carried out over the last few decades has

* Corresponding author. Tel.: þ48 12 6320549; fax: þ48 12 6322432.

E-mail addresses: [email protected] (B. Wy _zga), [email protected]

(J. Zawiejska), [email protected] (Y.-F. Le Lay).

0301-4797/$ - see front matter � 2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

doi:10.1016/j.jenvman.2007.12.013

documented the important role that large pieces of woodplay in the functioning of watercourses draining forested cor-ridors. Large wood beneficially influences aquatic ecosystemsby increasing habitat diversity, providing habitat for manygroups of invertebrates, fish and beavers, acting as a foodsource for aquatic biota and improving retention of organicmatter in the channels (Harmon et al., 1986; Gurnell et al.,1995; Gregory et al., 2003). Wood debris floated onto flood-plains and channel bars promotes vegetation establishmentin these areas and riparian forest development along streamsand rivers (Fetherston et al., 1995; Gurnell et al., 2001). More-over, large wood accumulations increase flow resistance, facil-itating dissipation of the energy of floodwater (Gippel, 1995),

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588 B. Wy_zga et al. / Journal of Environmental Management 90 (2009) 587e603

and enhance the potential for in-channel sediment storage(Keller et al., 1995). Arising from these findings, guidelinesfor management of the watercourses draining forested corri-dors (Gregory and Davis, 1992) as well as for rehabilitationof wood in channels (Gerhard and Reich, 2001) have beenwritten, and actions to restore streams and rivers using largewood have recently been undertaken in some countries,mainly USA, Germany and Australia (Reich, 2000; Reichet al., 2003; Brooks et al., 2006).

To demonstrate difficulties in undertaking wood reintroduc-tion to watercourses, a hypothesis was formulated that the per-ception of wood in riverscapes can differ among areas ofvaried socio-cultural background, thus leading to agreementto wood reintroduction in some parts of the world and to itsrejection in other areas, independently of ecological needs.The hypothesis was verified by conducting a survey that ana-lysed the perception of riverscapes with and without woodydebris by groups of academic students of different disciplinesfrom 11 areas in contrasting parts of the world (Piegay et al.,2005; Le Lay et al., in press). The survey indicated consider-able differences in the perception of channels with wood be-tween particular areas, which were much more pronouncedthan the differences between the disciplinary groups in eacharea. Wood-containing channels were positively perceived bystudents from Oregon (USA) and Germany (Mutz et al.,2006), where first instances of wood reintroduction in water-courses occurred. In contrast, in many other areas such chan-nels were considered to be less aesthetic, more dangerous andneeding more improvement than channels without wood,hence indicating the difficulties of gaining social agreementfor wood reintroduction in watercourses (Piegay et al., 2005;Le Lay et al., in press).

Education provides the environmental knowledge whichmay influence students’ behaviours and attitudes toward theenvironment. The success of environmental education dependson the pedagogic practices employed, such as the combinationof different sources of information (Akande, 2003), teachingstyles (Yeung, 1999) and assessment forms (Sluijsmanset al., 1999), as well as on the length of the programme(Bogner, 1998). For instance, a 10-week environmental coursewas shown to considerably change attitudes and behaviour ofbusiness students (Benton, 1993). Also important is the famil-iarity with natural processes in the field, especially in one ofthe high environmental value (Korbel, 1994). An educationalprogramme on environment has positive effects at all ages(Cichy, 1998; Lindermann-Matthies, 2002). Moreover, theinformation gained by schoolchildren can be transferred totheir parents and community (Vaughan et al., 2003). Notonly knowledge but also feelings and beliefs were shown toplay a major role in forming positive attitudes toward the en-vironment and pro-environmental behaviour (Kals et al., 1999;Pooley and O’Connor, 2000). Creating emotional affinity forthe environment is thus an equally important target of environ-mental education as is teaching how natural systems operate(Ballantyne and Packer, 1996).

In Poland, environmental knowledge of the younger gener-ation and the whole of society is largely formed by geographers

and biologists, whereas most decisions concerning river man-agement are undertaken by water engineers. The Polish partof the survey on riverscape perception was designed so as toobtain opinions of both early year and advanced studentsfrom the three disciplines. This paper compares these opinionsto determine how changes in the perception of wood in water-courses occur in the course of academic education. The Polishpart of the survey also comprised managers involved in themanagement and protection of watercourses. Perception ofthe environment by persons with professional experience in en-vironmental management may differ from that of non-experts(Mitchell, 1971; Zube, 1973; Buhyoff et al., 1978; Feimer,1984) and the discrepancy can have a clear reflection in distinctrecommendations formulated with respect to environmentalproblems (Vining, 1992). Dearden (1980) suggested that ifmanagers and the general public differ in their perception ofthe environment, the difference derives from environmentalawareness of the groups. This paper also compares riverscapeperception between water authority managers and water engi-neering students, as well as between national park managersand biology students, in order to determine whether studyingthese disciplines allows the students to get knowledge about,and formulate attitudes to, in-channel wood useful for their fu-ture work in the managing agencies.

2. Questionnaire respondents and study methods

The influence of the occurrence of in-channel wood onriverscape perception was tested using a questionnaire and aset of 10 photographs with wood and 10 others withoutwood (Piegay et al., 2005). The set comprised 10 scenes ofstreams (channel width from 2 to 5 m) and 10 scenes of rivers(channel width larger than 10 m), with photographs with andwithout wood equally represented in each subset (Fig. 1).The riverscapes were selected to represent a range of physio-graphic types of watercourse from mountain through piedmontto lowland ones.

Respondents were not informed that the survey was focusedon the perception of in-channel wood but were asked to eval-uate particular scenes in terms of riverscape aesthetics, natu-ralness, danger and need for improvement. They graded eachphoto independently of the others on a visual analog scalefrom 0, the lowest degree of agreement, to 10, the highest de-gree of agreement. The respondents were also requested tocharacterise the perceived danger (six qualitative modalities:A e no danger, B e flooding, C e bank erosion, D e for lei-sure activities, E e in terms of water quality, F e other) aswell as the recommended improvement to riverscapes (sevenmodalities: A e no improvement needed, B e improvementof scenic beauty; C e fauna conservation, D e bank stabilisa-tion, E e channel cleaning for flood risk mitigation, F e engi-neering measures for flood risk mitigation, G e other). Eachrespondent also indicated information about their personal res-idence (urban/rural), frequency of the visits to watercourses,gender, age, as well as the discipline and the year of studiesin the case of students, or the type of managing agency andthe field of academic degree in the case of managers. Detailed

Fig. 1. Photographs of the watercourses with and without wood assessed by the respondents in terms of riverscape aesthetics, naturalness, danger, and need for

improvement (after Piegay et al., 2005, with kind permission of Springer Science and Business Media).

589B. Wy_zga et al. / Journal of Environmental Management 90 (2009) 587e603

information on the submission of the questionnaire to respon-dents is given by Piegay et al. (2005).

The surveyed students represented disciplines likely to havea future influence on the appearance and functioning ofstreams and rivers in Poland; water engineers through theirdirect operations in watercourses, while geographers and biol-ogists through formation of the positive attitude of younggenerations toward the environment and rivers. For each disci-pline, we surveyed first-year students (called ‘‘beginning stu-dents’’) as well as third- and fourth-year students (called‘‘advanced students’’) from three universities. Geographersrepresented Jagiellonian and Pedagogical Universities inKrakow and Silesian University in Sosnowiec. Biologistswere from Jagiellonian and Pedagogical Universities inKrakow and from Swietokrzyski University in Kielce. Water

engineering students were from the Agricultural Universitiesin Krakow and Wroc1aw as well as the Technological Univer-sity in Krakow. The total number of the investigated beginningor advanced students in each discipline ranged from 61 to 71persons. Answers to the questionnaire were also obtained from37 water authority managers and 39 national park managers.The managers represented six water inspectorates and sixnational parks, respectively, located in mountain, piedmontand lowland regions of the country. According to Stamps(1992), sample sizes similar to those used in the present studyare sufficient to reveal characteristics of environmentalperception.

For each evaluated feature, respondent’s scores of allscenes with or without wood were averaged and used to calcu-late statistical characteristics for a given group of respondents.


Since some of the average scores did not follow a normal dis-tribution, statistical differences were tested by non-parametricmethods. The Wilcoxon signed rank test was used for examin-ing the differences between average scores of riverscapes withand without wood, whereas the differences of average scoresfor a given type of riverscape between beginning and advancedgroups of students were analysed with the ManneWhitneytest. A two-way analysis of variance was employed to deter-mine whether the mutual relation of the average scores ofboth types of riverscapes differs between two groups ofrespondents. We used this parametric test as it has no non-parametric equivalent. It should be noted that its use for testingthe samples lacking a normal distribution does not questionthe occurrence of recognised relationships but may inhibit rec-ognition of other relations (because non-normal distribution ofthe analysed sample makes it difficult to reject the null hypoth-esis of the test, although it is actually incorrect) (Lindman,

Fig. 2. Mean and standard deviation of the scores given by beginning and advanced

WEa) to the scenes of watercourses with and without wood according to the four gra

danger and (d) need for improvement. Vertical figures below the group symbols ind

scenes of both types of watercourses, determined by a Wilcoxon signed rank test.

scores given by beginning and advanced students as well as those given to scene

both tests, p-values <0.05 are indicated in bold. Sample size: Gb e 63; Ga e 66;

1974). Finally, respondents’ answers concerning the type ofperceived danger and recommended improvement to river-scapes were analysed with contingency tables. Pearson’s chi-squared test was used to verify a significance of the differencesbetween the qualitative answers given by two groups of re-spondents, whereas a strength of the differences was deter-mined using a Cramer’s V coefficient.

3. Results

3.1. Differences in the riverscape perception betweenbeginning and advanced students of geography, biologyand water engineering

Fig. 2 compares means of scores given by a particulargroup of students to scenes with and without wood and indi-cates a significance level of the Wilcoxon test. Both the

students of geography (Gb, Ga), biology (Bb, Ba) and water engineering (WEb,

dients: (a) aesthetic preference, (b) perception of naturalness, (c) perception of

icate statistical significance of the difference between mean scores given to the

Horizontal figures indicate statistical significance of the differences of mean

s with and without wood, determined by two-way analysis of variance. For

Bb e 71; Ba e 67; WEb e 61 and WEa e 64.


beginning and advanced students of the three disciplines con-sidered scenes with wood to be significantly less aesthetic thanscenes without wood. However, the difference between aver-age scores of both types of riverscapes and its statistical signif-icance increased with the progress of water engineeringstudies but diminished with the progress in studying geogra-phy and biology (Fig. 2a). All the investigated groups of stu-dents considered riverscapes with wood as significantly morenatural than riverscapes without wood and no major changeto the pattern of naturalness perception occurred with studyprogress. However, somewhat greater distinction between thenaturalness of both types of riverscapes was indicated by theadvanced geography and water engineering students than bythe beginning students of the disciplines (Fig. 2b). In thegroups of geography and biology students, differences be-tween the scores of danger ascribed to both types of water-courses were relatively small. However, their direction wasreversed in the course of study, with slightly greater dangerassigned to watercourses with wood by the beginning geogra-phers and biologists but to watercourses without wood by theadvanced students of both disciplines (Fig. 2c). In contrast,both groups of water engineering students considered water-courses with wood to be significantly more dangerous thanthose without wood and the difference between the scores ofdanger ascribed to both types of watercourses was doubledin the course of study (Fig. 2c). All the student groups consid-ered watercourses with wood as needing significantly moreimprovement than watercourses without wood. However, thedisparity in the respondents’ inclination to improve both typesof watercourses diminished with the progress of geographyand biology studies but increased with the progress of waterengineering studies (Fig. 2d).

It is interesting to determine which type of riverscape isperceived differently with regard to particular features by thebeginning and advanced students of each discipline, and thishas been done using a ManneWhitney test. Among geographystudents (Table 1), the aesthetics of scenes with wood wererated more highly by the advanced students than by the begin-ners. The advanced geographers attributed lower danger towood-containing channels and were less inclined to improvethem than the beginning students. Moreover, the advanced

Table 1

Results of a ManneWhitney test for the significance of difference in the percept

advanced students of geography

Feature evaluated Type of riverscape Mean of scores

Answers from beginn

students (N¼ 61)

Aesthetics With wood 4.22

Without wood 5.74

Naturalness With wood 7.20

Without wood 5.68

Danger With wood 5.15

Without wood 4.93

Need for improvement With wood 5.06

Without wood 3.12

p-Values of the test <0.05 are indicated in bold.

geographers better recognised the unnatural character of wa-tercourses without wood. Among biology students (Table 2),the advanced students ascribed greater danger to watercourseswithout wood and were more disposed to improve them thanthe beginning students. Among water engineering students(Table 3), wood-containing channels were considered moredangerous and needing more improvement by the advancedstudents than by the beginners. The advance by students ofthis discipline was better recognition of the unnatural charac-ter of watercourses without wood.

Two-way analysis of variance was used to test a significanceof the combined impact of differences existing according totwo factors: beginning versus advanced students and river-scapes with wood versus those without wood (Fig. 2). Thefollowing aspects of riverscape perception are subject to mod-ification during the progress of courses:

e recognition of riverscape naturalness by geography stu-dents ( p¼ 0.044), with advanced students rating the natu-ralness of watercourses with wood more highly and thenaturalness of those without wood lower than thebeginners;

e danger ascribed to watercourses by the students of all threedisciplines. A reduction in danger ascribed to channelswith wood and an increase in danger ascribed to channelswithout wood result in a reversal of the type of water-courses considered as more dangerous in the course ofgeography ( p¼ 0.013) and biology ( p¼ 0.041) studies.Danger generated by watercourses without wood is simi-larly rated by the beginning and advanced students ofwater engineering. However, as the advanced studentsrate the danger generated by wood-containing channelsmarkedly higher than the beginning students, the differ-ence in the danger attributed to both types of watercoursessignificantly increases with more advanced students in thisdiscipline ( p¼ 0.036);

e river improvement expectations of biology and water engi-neering students. Although both the beginning and ad-vanced biology students are more disposed to improvewatercourses with wood than those without wood, the in-clination to improve wood-containing channels decreases

ion of riverscapes with and without wood between groups of beginning and

p-Value of ManneWhitney test

ing Answers from advanced

students (N¼ 66)

4.77 0.027

5.74 0.95

7.46 0.45

5.35 0.042

4.60 0.014

5.21 0.25

4.36 0.032

3.07 0.93

Table 2

Results of a ManneWhitney test for the significance of difference in the perception of riverscapes with and without wood between groups of beginning and

advanced students of biology

Feature evaluated Type of riverscape Mean of scores p-Value of ManneWhitney test

Answers from

beginning students (N¼ 71)

Answers from

advanced students (N¼ 67)

Aesthetics With wood 4.73 5.00 0.21

Without wood 5.94 5.77 0.23

Naturalness With wood 7.41 7.33 0.43

Without wood 5.57 5.35 0.15

Danger With wood 4.82 4.60 0.35

Without wood 4.27 4.72 0.047

Need for improvement With wood 4.65 4.31 0.30

Without wood 2.80 3.40 0.007



and that concerning channels without wood increases withcourse progression, hence significantly reducing the dis-parity in the respondents’ recommendations relating toboth types of watercourses ( p¼ 0.021). Among water en-gineering students, also both groups consider watercourseswith wood as needing more improvement than those with-out wood but in that case, the difference in the students’recommendations concerning both types of watercoursesincreases during the course ( p¼ 0.040). The change re-flects the increased inclination of advanced students to im-prove channels with wood, whereas the improvementexpectations relating to channels without wood do notchange visibly during the course.

We also verified whether the changes in the quantitativeassessment of danger attributed to particular types of water-courses, which occurred during the course, were accompaniedby changes in the type of perceived danger (Fig. 3). A fre-quency of the types of danger linked with channels withwood differed between the beginning and advanced groupsof geography students (Pearson’s chi-squared test, p¼0.0001), although the effect on the types of perceived dangerwas small (Cramer’s V¼ 0.14). The advanced students morefrequently linked flood risk with such channels but less fre-quently the danger for water quality and for leisure activities.

Table 3

Results of a ManneWhitney test for the significance of difference in the percept

advanced students of water engineering

Feature evaluated Type of riverscape Mean of scores

Answers from

beginning students (N¼ 6

Aesthetics With wood 4.58

Without wood 5.75

Naturalness With wood 7.18

Without wood 5.36

Danger With wood 4.70

Without wood 4.12

Need for improvement With wood 4.70

Without wood 2.88


However, no statistical difference occurred between the typesof danger ascribed by both groups of geography students tochannels without wood.

The progress in studying biology was reflected in the typeof danger ascribed to watercourses with wood as well asthose without wood (Pearson’s chi-squared test, p¼ 0.005for both types of watercourses), although this effect wassmall (Cramer’s V¼ 0.11). Greater numbers of advanced stu-dents associated wood-containing channels with flood risk,but expectations of the threat to water quality in such chan-nels were reduced. In the case of channels without wood, ad-vanced students gave lower numbers of ‘‘no danger’’ answersand expected greater risk for water quality than the beginningstudents.

The progression of water engineering studies also influ-enced the type of danger attributed to both channels withwood (Pearson’s chi-squared test, p< 0.000001) and thosewithout wood ( p< 0.0006). This effect was relatively lowand more pronounced for channels with wood (Cramer’sV¼ 0.20) than for channels without wood (Cramer’sV¼ 0.13). Advanced students much less frequently ascribedno danger to channels with wood but more frequently linkedthem with the risks of flooding and bank erosion. Only thethreat for water quality was considered less important by theadvanced students than by the beginners. With respect to

ion of riverscapes with and without wood between groups of beginning and

p-Value of ManneWhitney test

1)

Answers from

advanced students (N¼ 64)

4.33 0.48

5.84 0.83

7.30 0.64

5.07 0.046

5.51 0.002

4.19 0.88

5.70 0.009

3.06 0.51

Fig. 3. Percentage frequency of risk types assigned by the beginning and advanced students of geography, biology and water engineering to the scenes of water-

courses with and without wood. A e no danger, B e flooding, C e bank erosion, D e for leisure activities, E e degraded water quality and F e other. Statistical

significance of the differences between the beginning and advanced student groups was determined by Pearson’s chi-squared test; p-values <0.05 are indicated in

bold.


channels without wood, advanced students expected greaterrisk of bank erosion but lower risk for leisure activities andfor water quality in comparison with the beginners.

A comparison of the answers about recommended improve-ments to riverscapes given by beginning and advanced stu-dents indicated whether course progression was reflected inmodification of students’ inclination to improve the appear-ance and/or functioning of watercourses (Fig. 4). No signifi-cant difference was found between the actions recommendedby both groups of geography and biology students to improvechannels with wood as well as those without wood. However,the advance in academic education was reflected in the im-provement actions recommended by water engineering stu-dents for both types of watercourses (Pearson’s chi-squaredtest, p¼ 0.04 for watercourses without wood, andp< 0.00001 for those containing wood), this effect havingbeen small with regard to channels without wood (Cramer’sV¼ 0.10) and somewhat greater for those with wood (Cram-er’s V¼ 0.22). Concerning channels with wood, the advancedstudents gave fewer answers ‘‘no improvement needed’’ andwere more disposed to clean such channels and to stabilisetheir banks than the beginning students. The advanced studentswere also more inclined to undertake actions in channels

without wood, such as bank stabilisation, improvement of hab-itat for fauna as well as reducing flood risk by means of engi-neering measures or the removal of boulders constituting largeroughness elements.

3.2. Changes in riverscape perception with the courseprogress of geography students from Krakow andSosnowiec

For each of the three disciplines considered, the change inthe riverscape perception with the progress of education wasdetermined by surveying students from three universities intwo towns. With regard to the biology and water engineeringstudents, the pattern was similar for the groups from each uni-versity whereas in the case of geography students, marked dif-ferences were recognised between the patterns typifyingstudents from Jagiellonian and Pedagogical Universities inKrakow and the students from Silesian University in Sosno-wiec. Krakow is a major town in southern Poland surroundedby countryside of variable physiography, whereas Sosnowiecis located within the conurbation of the Upper Silesia witha predominance of industrial landscape. Different possibilitiesto observe unmanaged watercourses around both towns may

Fig. 4. Percentage frequency of improvement types assigned by the beginning and advanced students of geography, biology and water engineering to the scenes of

watercourses with and without wood. A e no improvement, B e improvement of scenic beauty, C e habitat improvement for fauna, D e bank stabilisation, E e

channel cleaning for flood risk mitigation, F e engineering measures for flood risk mitigation and G e other. Statistical significance of the differences between the

beginning and advanced student groups was determined by Pearson’s chi-squared test; p-values <0.05 are indicated in bold.


underlie lower aesthetic evaluation of channels with wood bythe beginning geography students from Sosnowiec and theirgreater expectations to improve such channels in comparisonwith the beginners from Krakow (Fig. 5). However, they can-not explain the different patterns of changes in the riverscapeperception with the course progression in both academic cen-tres, which are presented below. The surveyed groups of thebeginning and advanced geography students from both townsare similar in size, comprising from 27 to 39 respondents.

Two-way analysis of variance of the data for the respon-dents studying geography in Krakow indicates that their per-ception of both types of riverscapes does not changesignificantly in the course of education (Fig. 5). Both the be-ginning and advanced geography students from this academiccentre considered channels with wood as less aesthetic, morenatural and needing more improvement than channels withoutwood, and the difference of mean scores of both types ofwatercourses was similar in each group. At the same time,the two groups did not see a difference between the danger at-tributed to both channel types that would be statisticallysignificant.

In contrast, two-way analysis of the scores given by the ge-ography students from Sosnowiec testifies that for each featureevaluated, their perception of riverscapes changes significantlywith the progress of their course (Fig. 5). Although bothgroups from Sosnowiec considered scenes with wood to beless aesthetically pleasing than those without wood, the differ-ence of mean scores given to the two types of riverscapes washighly significant in the case of the beginning students but notstatistically significant for the advanced students (Fig. 5a).This change mainly reflects considerably higher evaluationof scenes with wood by the advanced students than by the be-ginners (5.01 versus 3.78; ManneWhitney test, p¼ 0.0007).Both the beginning and advanced geography students fromSosnowiec recognised riverscapes with wood as more naturalthan those without wood, however, the difference of meanscores given to both types of riverscapes significantly in-creases with the progress in education (Fig. 5b). This changereflects a higher rating of the naturalness of riverscapes withwood by the advanced students in comparison with the opinionof the beginners (7.43 versus 6.75; ManneWhitney test,p¼ 0.05). The type of watercourses considered by the

Fig. 5. Mean and standard deviation of the scores given by beginning and advanced students of geography from the universities in Krakow (GKb, GKa) and Sos-

nowiec (GSb, GSa) to the scenes of watercourses with and without wood according to the four gradients: (a) aesthetic preference, (b) perception of naturalness, (c)

perception of danger and (d) need for improvement. Vertical figures below the group symbols indicate statistical significance of the difference between mean scores

given to the scenes of both types of watercourses, determined by a Wilcoxon signed rank test. Horizontal figures indicate statistical significance of the differences

of mean scores given by beginning and advanced students as well as those given to scenes with and without wood, determined by two-way analysis of variance. For

both tests, p-values <0.05 are indicated in bold. Sample size: GKb e 34; GKa e 27; GSb e 29 and GSa e 39.


geography students from Sosnowiec as more dangerous is re-versed in the course of education and the change is statisticallysignificant (Fig. 5c). This change predominantly results froma lower rating by the advanced students of the danger gener-ated by wood-containing channels (4.43 versus 5.07; ManneWhitney test, p¼ 0.04), whereas an increase in the dangerattributed to channels without wood is of lesser importance(5.21 versus 4.71; ManneWhitney test, p¼ 0.10). Whileboth groups of geography students from Sosnowiec consideredwatercourses with wood as needing more improvement thanthose without wood, the disparity in the respondents’ inclina-tion to improve both types of watercourses significantly de-creases with the progress in education (Fig. 5d). This changereflects a significantly reduced inclination of advanced stu-dents to undertake actions in wood-containing channels(4.17 versus 5.56; ManneWhitney test, p¼ 0.004).

A frequency of the types of danger ascribed to channelswithout wood by the geography students from two universitiesin Krakow did not change in the course of education. How-ever, the advance in education influenced perception of risktypes attributed to wood-containing channels (Pearson’s chi-squared test, p¼ 0.03), although this effect was weak (Cram-er’s V¼ 0.14). The advanced students more frequently linkedflood risk with such channels but less often the danger for lei-sure activities (Fig. 6). Studying geography in Sosnowiecinfluenced the perception of risk types linked to channelswith wood (Pearson’s chi-squared test, p¼ 0.00001; Cramer’sV¼ 0.22) and without wood (Pearson’s chi-squared test,p¼ 0.009; Cramer’s V¼ 0.15). With the progress in education,a greater proportion of the students from this university con-sidered wood-containing channels as generating the risk offlooding, whereas the expectations of the threat to leisure

Fig. 6. Percentage frequency of risk types assigned by the beginning and advanced students of geography from the universities in Krakow and Sosnowiec to the

scenes of watercourses with and without wood. A e no danger, B e flooding, C e bank erosion, D e for leisure activities, E e in terms of water quality and F eother. Statistical significance of the differences between the beginning and advanced student groups was determined by Pearson’s chi-squared test; p-values <0.05

are indicated in bold.


activities and to water quality were reduced. Consideringchannels without wood, the advanced students from Sosno-wiec gave lower numbers of the ‘‘no danger’’ answers and ex-pected greater risks of flooding and for water quality than thebeginning students (Fig. 6).

In the case of geography students from Krakow, course pro-gression exerted no influence on recommendations of the

Fig. 7. Percentage frequency of improvement types assigned by the beginning and a

to the scenes of watercourses with and without wood. A e no improvement, B e

stabilisation, E e channel cleaning for flood risk mitigation, F e engineering me

differences between the beginning and advanced student groups was determined b

actions for improving watercourses both with wood and with-out wood (Fig. 7). No significant difference was foundbetween the improvements to channels without wood recom-mended by the beginning and advanced students from Sosno-wiec, whereas a clear difference existed between therecommendation given by both groups to wood-containingchannels (Pearson’s chi-squared test, p¼ 0.0001; Cramer’s

dvanced students of geography from the universities in Krakow and Sosnowiec

improvement of scenic beauty, C e habitat improvement for fauna, D e bank

asures for flood risk mitigation and G e other. Statistical significance of the

y Pearson’s chi-squared test; p-values <0.05 are indicated in bold.


V¼ 0.20). Advanced students much more frequently indicatedno need to undertake any action in such channels and less of-ten suggested improvement of scenic beauty or habitat forfauna (Fig. 7).

3.3. Riverscape perception by students and managers

Among the interviewed water authority managers, 81%were graduates of water engineering studies. In the group ofnational park managers, 46% held biology degrees, and grad-uates of biology and forestry studies together represented 84%of all the respondents in the managing group (although wehave not interviewed forestry students, it seems reasonableto assume that their knowledge about riverine ecosystems isat most comparable). With the high percentage of graduates

Fig. 8. Mean and standard deviation of the scores given by advanced students of w

advanced students of biology (Ba) and national park managers (NPM) to the scene

aesthetic evaluation, (b) perception of naturalness, (c) perception of danger and (d)

tistical significance of the difference between mean scores given to the scenes of bot

figures indicate statistical significance of the differences of mean scores given by ad

wood, determined by two-way analysis of variance. For both tests, p-values <0.0

NPM e 39.

of these studies among the interviewed managers, it is justifiedto compare perception of the riverscapes between the groupsof biology students and national park managers as well as wa-ter engineering students and water authority managers.

Two-way analysis of variance of the data relating to ad-vanced biology students and national park managers showsthat for each feature evaluated, a significant difference in river-scape perception occurred between both groups of respondents(Fig. 8). While the advanced biology students perceivedscenes with wood as less aesthetically pleasing than sceneswithout wood, the opposite preference was apparent amongthe national park managers. Both groups considered river-scapes with wood to be more natural than those withoutwood; however, as the managers rated naturalness of the river-scapes with wood markedly higher than the advanced biology

ater engineering (WEa) and water authority managers (WAM) as well as by

s of watercourses with and without wood according to the four gradients: (a)

need for improvement. Vertical figures below the group symbols indicate sta-

h types of watercourses, determined by a Wilcoxon signed rank test. Horizontal

vanced students and managers as well as those given to scenes with and without

5 are indicated in bold. Sample size: WEa e 64; WAM e 37; Ba e 67 and


students, the difference of mean scores given to both types ofriverscapes was significantly greater in the managers’ opinion.The advanced students similarly rated the danger generated byboth types of watercourses but considered channels with woodas needing more improvement than channels without wood. Incontrast, the managers perceived wood-containing channels asless dangerous and requiring less improvement in comparisonwith channels without wood.

In turn, two-way analysis of variance concerning the datafor advanced water engineering students and water authoritymanagers indicates that these groups of respondents differedsignificantly only with respect to the evaluation of riverscapeimprovement (Fig. 8). Although the groups considered thatchannels with wood need more improvement than channelswithout wood, the difference of mean scores given to bothtypes of watercourses was considerably smaller in the man-agers’ case. Moreover, the managers rated the danger gener-ated by both types of watercourses remarkably lower thanthe students (ManneWhitney test, p¼ 0.0002 for the channelswith wood, and p¼ 0.00005 for the channels without wood)and the same was true with respect to the need for watercourseimprovement (ManneWhitney test, p¼ 0.000001 for thechannels with wood, and p¼ 0.004 for the channels withoutwood) (Fig. 8).

A very strong relationship of the group-average scores forneed for improvement on the scores for perceived danger wasrecognised for watercourses with wood (Fig. 9), and the rela-tion is used to evaluate the usefulness of biology and water en-gineering studies for management of such watercourses by thegraduates of the disciplines in their future work in, respectively,

Fig. 9. Scatter plot and regression line for the relationship between mean scores for t

for need for their improvement given by beginning and advanced students of water

agers. Dashed and dotted lines indicate paths of changes in the appraisal of dange

advanced biology students and to national park managers, and from beginning wa

authority managers.

national parks and water authorities. In the course of biologystudies, the ratings of danger ascribed to channels with woodas well as the inclination to improve such channels are bothreduced. However, the scale of the reduction is very small incomparison with a further reduction in rating these features be-tween the advanced students and national park managers. Inturn, the rating of danger attributed to wood-containing chan-nels by water engineering students and their inclination to un-dertake action in such channels increase with the length ofstudy of the discipline, whereas the respective scores givenby water authority managers are lower than those formulatedby the beginning and advanced students (Fig. 9).

4. Discussion

4.1. Influence of academic education on the perception ofwood in watercourses

A previously published study of student perception of in-channel wood (Piegay et al., 2005) indicated that Polish stu-dents from particular disciplines considered the occurrenceof wood in watercourses similarly negatively. However, theabove analysis of changes in riverscape perception duringthe course of academic education in particular disciplines re-veals that this partly reflected an amalgamation of the answersof beginning and advanced students. In fact, many aspects ofstudents’ attitudes toward watercourses are subject to modifi-cation with course progression, whereas the amalgamation ob-scures different tendencies in riverscape perception of studentsfrom particular disciplines.

he perception of danger attributed to the scenes of watercourses with wood and

engineering and biology as well as by water authority and national park man-

r and need for improvement from, respectively, beginning biology students to

ter engineering students to advanced water engineering students and to water


Perception of the environment may reflect one of two gen-eral attitudes: an ecocentric attitude, when people value naturefor its own sake, or an anthropocentric one, when nature isvalued on the basis of benefits it can provide for humans(Thompson and Barton, 1994). It seemed reasonable to expectthat an ecocentric attitude would prevail among persons be-ginning their studies in natural sciences, especially biology,with a more anthropocentric attitude likely among those be-ginning studies in water engineering, hence leading to variedevaluation of wood-containing watercourses. In fact, suchwatercourses were similarly negatively perceived by the be-ginning students of the three investigated disciplines (Figs.2e4). This indicates that the antipathetic attitude toward in-channel wood, typifying Polish students (and the studentsfrom several other countries as well (Piegay et al., 2005)),must be strongly conditioned by the cultural background (cf.Le Lay and Piegay, 2007). For instance, the beginners in thethree disciplines perceived channels with wood as generatinggreater threat to water quality than channels without wood.Such an opinion is not shared by experts (in fact, the impactof wood pieces on flow hydraulics may increase water aera-tion, thus raising its ability to self-purify) and it seems to re-flect an idea of trees fallen to watercourses as dead, decayingobjects that pollute water (Le Lay et al., in press).

Apart from considering fallen trees as water pollutants, thefollowing factors seem to underlie the negative perception ofin-channel wood by Polish students (Wy _zga, 2007):

e poor knowledge of the appearance and functioning ofstreams and rivers flowing through forested corridors,that reflects rather infrequent visits of the students to wa-tercourses and poorly developed environmental educationof the society;

e behaviour and thinking conditioned by recent times of anabsolute predominance of agricultural landscape in rivervalleys; and

e deep-rooted technocratic approach to river managementand the social acquiescence with this approach.

The remarkably higher rating by the beginning students ofthe scenic beauty of channels without wood than that of wood-containing channels corresponds with higher aesthetic prefer-ences of British students for such watercourses recognisedpreviously by Gregory and Davis (1993). It is also consistentwith higher rating by the respondents from New Zealand ofthe scenic beauty of watercourses flowing across a managedlandscape than those flowing in a natural landscape (Mosley,1989). Therefore, riverscape evaluation by the beginning stu-dents may simply reflect a common appreciation by personswith little environmental knowledge of the aesthetics of cul-tural landscapes, the structure of which has been ordered byhumans, whereas natural landscapes, with their patchy struc-ture of ecotops, are perceived to be abandoned and neglected(Nassauer, 1995).

Riverscape perception is modified during the progressionthrough a course. Advanced students of geography and waterengineering recognise the unnatural character of watercourses

lacking woody debris better than the beginners. The rating bygeography students of the scenic beauty of riverscapes withwood increases with the advance in education. The rating ofdanger ascribed to wood-containing channels as well as the re-spondents’ inclination to improve them increases in the courseof water engineering studies but decreases during the geogra-phy course. In turn, the progression in biology studies is re-flected in higher evaluation of the danger generated bywatercourses without wood and in the greater inclination of re-spondents to improve such watercourses.

Pedersen (1978) found strong evidence that preference fora given environment is related to familiarity with that environ-ment. Frequent visits to a given environment may facilitate un-derstanding of its functioning (Faulkner et al., 2001) and leadto appreciation of its scenic beauty (Dearden, 1984), and LeLay et al. (in press) showed previously that watercourseswith wood were positively considered in the countries wherestudents frequently visit watercourses, but negatively in thosewhere such visits are rare. However, the opposite tendencies inthe perception of in-channel wood, characteristic of Polish stu-dents from different disciplines (i.e. strengthening of the neg-ative wood perception in the course of water engineeringstudies and its reduction with the progress of geography andbiology studies), cannot be explained by differences in the fre-quency of visits to streams and rivers between students fromparticular disciplines. Although the percentage of frequent vis-itors is lower among the advanced students than among the be-ginners, the trends of changes in the frequency of visits towatercourses during studies are similar for the respondentsfrom all three disciplines.

The responses to the questionnaire given by the advancedstudents reflect their acquisition of knowledge about the influ-ence of in-channel wood on physical and biotic processes inwatercourses that must have modified the culturally condi-tioned wood perception typical of beginning students. Thisis evidenced by the reduced percentage of the students consid-ering watercourses with wood to be dangerous for water qual-ity and by the increased percentage of those attributing floodrisk to such watercourses (Fig. 3) with recommendations toclean them in order to mitigate the risk (Fig. 4). Also, theincreased number of the answers recommending habitat im-provement in watercourses without wood (Fig. 4) as well asthe increased percentage of geography and biology studentsconsidering such watercourses to be risky for water quality(Fig. 3) can be linked with knowledge acquired in the courseof the studies. The questionnaire did not contain a query aboutthe sources of respondents’ knowledge concerning the influ-ence of in-channel wood on the functioning of watercoursesas it would have revealed the aim of the survey and mighthave affected the objectivity of the responses. Therefore, itis impossible to determine definitely whether the investigatedadvanced students obtained their knowledge about in-channelwood in the course of lectures, classes and field courses duringtheir studies, or from other sources such as the Internet, librar-ies or the scientific media. However, inferences about the roleof academic education in modifying perceptions of wood inwatercourses can be made with respect to those groups, in


which the change in attitudes toward in-channel wood, accom-plished during courses, is most evident, i.e. the students of wa-ter engineering as well as the geography students from theuniversity in Sosnowiec.

Increased knowledge about threats resulting from the im-pact of obstacles, such as large pieces of wood, on flow hy-draulics as well as from bank erosion, whereby much largewood is delivered to watercourses (Fig. 3), is a typical elementof the information obtained during water engineering studies.However, a direct manifestation of this knowledge in the in-creased inclination of the advanced students to suggest im-proving watercourses with wood (Fig. 2) possibly reflectsthe state of development of the discipline in Poland, whereno wood reintroduction to watercourses has been undertakento date and where river restoration is still at an early stage(Nieznanski et al., 2006). It should be noted that with the in-creased number of advanced students indicating the need forbank stabilisation and cleaning of wood-containing channels,the number of respondents recommending landscape and hab-itats improvement in such channels does not change in thecourse of water engineering studies (Fig. 4). Apparently, dur-ing their course, students do not appear to register environ-mental benefits resulting from the occurrence of wood inwatercourses. This is important because in Poland graduatesof the discipline not only work as engineers designing andconstructing hydraulic structures but also represent a majorityof the staff of water authorities. The selective knowledge ofwater engineering students about in-channel wood, directedonly to its removal from watercourses, will be inappropriateand insufficient for future managers responsible for sustain-able water management that must take into account both thesafety of riverside areas and the necessity to maintain goodecological status of watercourses (cf. Bojarski et al., 2005).

Riverscape perception by geography students from the uni-versity in Sosnowiec changes significantly in the course ofstudies for each feature evaluated, with the change mostlyreflecting a modified perception of wood-containing water-courses (Fig. 5). The advanced students rate danger generatedby such watercourses lower than the beginners (Fig. 5), whilebeing much more aware of the flood risk resulting from theoccurrence of wood in channels. At the same time, the numberof students considering channels with wood to be dangerousfor water quality and for leisure activities decreases withcourse progression (Fig. 6). In turn, reduced inclination bythe advanced students to improve wood-containing water-courses (Fig. 5) is associated with the reduced percentage ofthe recommendations for landscape and habitat improvementin such watercourses, whereas the number of students indicat-ing the need for cleaning the channels does not change in thecourse of their studies (Fig. 7). As the better perception ofchannels with wood by the advanced students is accompaniedby their greater awareness of the flood risk resulting from theoccurrence of in-channel wood, the change in perception musthave been linked with the formation/enhancement of pro-environmental attitudes and values of the students. When thefuture graduates of geography from the university in Sosno-wiec work as teachers, their pro-environmental attitude and

knowledge about the functioning of river systems will enablethem to transfer this knowledge to schoolchildren, thus shap-ing attitudes useful for the protection of environmental valuesof streams and rivers (cf. Ballantyne and Packer, 1996).

It is no coincidence that the remarkable change of the cul-turally conditioned perception of in-channel wood occurredduring the course of geography studies in Sosnowiec, andthat no such change was recognised among the students ofthe discipline from the universities in Krakow. The first PolishMaster thesis about in-channel wood was written in the late1990s in the university in Sosnowiec and here first two doc-toral dissertations in the country dealing with wood storagein lowland (Malik, 2001) and mountain streams (Kaczka,2002) were written in the early 2000s, whereas no scientificthesis about large woody debris has been prepared to date inthe universities in Krakow. The Ph.D. students, who subse-quently became academic tutors in Sosnowiec, have detailedknowledge about wood-related phenomena in watercoursesthat might have been transferred to students in the universityboth directly, during their scientific presentations, classesand field courses, or indirectly, via other academic tutors.Moreover, it is known that not only knowledge about environ-mental processes but also emotional affinity toward nature isdecisive in forming pro-environmental attitude of learners(Kals et al., 1999; Pooley and O’Connor, 2000). The academictutors investigating wood-containing watercourses were sym-pathetic to in-channel wood (see e.g. Kaczka, 1999; Kaczkaet al., 2003) and this must have promoted the formation ofsuch attitudes among the students.

4.2. Utility of academic education in relation to themanagement of wood-containing watercourses

The positive perception of wood-containing watercoursesby national park managers contrasts with the opinion of ad-vanced students of biology, who perceive such watercoursesnegatively (Fig. 8). This difference in perception suggeststhat in their professional activity, the managers obtain knowl-edge about environmental benefits resulting from the occur-rence of wood in watercourses as well as about the highenvironmental value of such watercourses, which allowsthem to overcome the culturally conditioned, negative percep-tion of in-channel wood typical of student respondents. Pre-sumably, the choice of national parks as a workplace ischaracteristic of biology graduates with definitely pro-environ-mental attitude, which may be another reason for the describeddifferences in the perception of in-channel wood. Subduing thenegative perception of wood-containing watercourses in thecourse of biology studies indicates that education in the disci-pline facilitates understanding of the environmental signifi-cance of in-channel wood. However, the effects of theeducation are highly insufficient to form the positive attitudetoward such watercourses observed among the managers(Fig. 9).

While both the advanced students of water engineering andwater authority managers negatively perceive the occurrenceof wood in watercourses, the managers rate the danger


ascribed to both types of watercourses as well as the need fortheir improvement markedly lower than the advanced students(Fig. 8). The high rating of both features by the advanced stu-dents reflects professional ideals of the discipline, which area proper recognition of the threats caused by watercoursesand counteracting them by means of technical measures. Inturn, the lower rating of the features by the water authoritymanagers seems to reflect adjustment of the ideals to financialconstraints of the managing agency e funds available to themanagers enable them to undertake actions only in some ofthe watercourses for which such interventions might be con-sidered. In addition, the results of two-way analysis of thescores given to the need for improvement of watercoursesby the advanced students and the managers (Fig. 8) indicatethat the latter have greater awareness of environmental bene-fits resulting from the occurrence of wood in channels. In theirwork, water managers are obliged to adjust activities in water-courses so as to allow attainment by 2015 of their good eco-logical status, required by the Water Framework Directive ofthe European Union (Bojarski et al., 2005), and the occur-rence/lack of in-channel wood is among the features deter-mined to assess a hydromorphological status of watercourses(CEN, 2003). Moreover, water managers are the recipientsof the requirements concerning environmental aspects of rivermanagement, which are formulated by scientists (e.g.Wi�sniewolski, 2005), ecological organizations (Pawlaczyk,1995) and fishery managers (Oglecki, 2004). The enhance-ment of the negative perception of watercourses containingwood during the course of water engineering studies contrastswith the difference of the opinions about such watercoursesbetween the advanced students of the discipline and waterauthority managers (Fig. 9). Education of water engineeringstudents about in-channel wood apparently emphasizes onlythreats caused by its presence in watercourses, so that the stu-dents’ highly negative attitude toward wood must be signifi-cantly moderated when the graduates begin working aswater authority managers.

5. Conclusions

Poland is among the countries in which people without pro-fessional training in river ecology, represented in the surveyby student respondents, considered wood-containing water-courses negatively (Piegay et al., 2005). While such an attitudetoward in-channel wood seems to be conditioned by a culturalbackground (Le Lay et al., in press), the present study showsthat the negative perception of watercourses with wood canbe significantly modified in the course of academic education.Improvement of the perception during geography and biologystudies is positive because many graduates of the disciplineswill work as teachers, hence having the opportunity to engen-der more friendly attitudes toward in-channel wood in theyoung generation. The improved perception of wood-contain-ing watercourses is most pronounced for the advanced geogra-phy students from a university in which some tutors conductedresearch on in-channel wood and could have transferredknowledge about, and positive attitude toward, wood to their

students. On the other hand, the education of water engineer-ing students about in-channel wood apparently focused onlyon the threats caused by its occurrence in watercourses, thusinappropriately preparing them for their future role of waterauthority managers. Both the best and the worst educationalcases emphasize the importance of the awareness of academictutors about the environmental role of in-channel wood for theformation of a wood-friendly awareness among their studentsbeing the future players in environmental education and rivermanagement in the country.

In a broader sense, this study shows how the progression ofcourses, and therefore of training, in three disciplines affectsperception of an environmental problem which can in turn af-fect decision-making. Recognition of students’ attitudes to-ward rivers and their functioning, presented in the paper inrelation to in-channel wood, should lead to modification ofthe learning programmes resulting in the formation/enhance-ment of environmental awareness of the graduates.

Acknowledgements

The results concerning wood perception by students havebeen obtained from a survey developed by an internationalworking group led by H. Piegay (CNRS, France) and K.J.Gregory (University of Southampton, UK) and comprising:V. Bondarev (Moscow State University, Russia), A. Chin(Texas A & M University, USA), N. Dahlstrom (Mid SwedenUniversity, Sweden), A. Elosegi (University of the BasqueCountry, Spain), S.V. Gregory (Oregon State University,USA), V. Joshi (S.P. College, Pune, India), Y.-F. Le Lay (Uni-versity Lyon III, France), M. Mutz (Brandenburg Technologi-cal University, Cottbus, Germany), M. Rinaldi (Universityof Florence, Italy), B. Wy _zga (Polish Academy of Science,Krakow, Poland) and J. Zawiejska (Jagiellonian University,Poland). We are grateful to a number of academic tutors aswell as the directors of water inspectorates and national parksfor the help with interviewing their students or managers, andto all the respondents for participation in the survey. Thanksare also due to two anonymous reviewers for their helpful crit-icism of the manuscript and improving the English style of thepaper.

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Influence of academic education on the perception of wood in watercourses

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