The aim of this contribution is to improve the knowledge of some interactions between floodplain and large wood in the Czarny Dunajec River in Poland, combining direct field observations and a probabilistic approach with 2D numerical modeling. Numerical modelling provides an alternative approach to addressing some of the unknowns in the dynamics of large wood in rivers. The model represents a controllable virtual world which replicates the real world and can be analysed fully at any space and time to test hypotheses and to run scenarios. Preliminary results gave information about large wood transport ratio, wood retention capacity, log travel distance, antecedent flood effect and relationship with the river morphology. © 2014 Taylor & Francis Group, London.