Water quality: the public dimension

To determine the value that the public places on possible water quality improvements, it is necessary to explore the motives which underlie any public preference for clean rivers; and upon what basis the public perceive water quality, how they judge whether or not a river is polluted. At the same time, a river as a recreational and psychic resource cannot be separated from its context: the river corridor. The value of water quality improvement in part depends upon the value of the river corridor. Studies carried out to date indicate that perceived water quality is judged largely by the presence or absence of obvious signs of pollution, and of fish. Both as a recreational and as a psychic resource river corridors are valued as "natural' resources. -from Authors