Implementing landscape connectivity with topographic filtering model: A simulation of suspended sediment delivery in an agricultural watershed.

The widespread availability of high-fidelity topography combined with advances in geospatial analysis offer the opportunity to reimagine approaches to the difficult problem of predicting sediment delivery from watersheds. Here we present a model that uses high-resolution topography to filter sediment sources to quantify sediment delivery to the watershed outlet. It is a reduced-complexity, top-down model that defines transfer functions-topographic filters-between spatially distributed sediment sources and spatially integrated sediment delivery.

Integrated assessment modeling reveals near-channel management as cost-effective to improve water quality in agricultural watersheds.

Despite decades of policy that strives to reduce nutrient and sediment export from agricultural fields, surface water quality in intensively managed agricultural landscapes remains highly degraded. Recent analyses show that current conservation efforts are not sufficient to reverse widespread water degradation in Midwestern agricultural systems. Intensifying row crop agriculture and increasing climate pressure require a more integrated approach to water quality management that addresses diverse sources of nutrients and sediment and off-field mitigation actions.

Simulation of fluvial sediment dynamics through strategic assessment of stream gaging data: A targeted watershed sediment loading analysis.

Near-channel sediment loading (NCSL) is localized and episodic, making it difficult to accurately quantify its cumulative contribution to watershed sediment loading, let alone predict the effects from changes in river discharge due to climate change or land management practices. We developed a methodological framework, using commonly available stream gaging data, for estimating watershed-scale NCSL, a feature generally absent in most watershed models. The method utilizes a network of paired gages that bracket the incised river corridors of 15 tributaries to the Minnesota River, in which near-channel sources are often the dominant contributors of sediment loading.

Unintended consequences of restoration: loss of riffles and gravel substrates following weir installation.

We used pre- and post-restoration channel surveys of the Donner und Blitzen River, Oregon, to evaluate the effects of grade-control structures on channel morphology and baseflow habitat conditions for native redband trout and other aquatic biota. Six years after installation, we found that the channel had a smaller proportion of riffles and pools and less gravel substrate, combined with an increase in the proportion of flat waters and consolidated clay on the bed surface. Both local scour downstream from weirs and backwater effects upstream from weirs appear to have caused the general flattening and fining of the channel.

Large shift in source of fine sediment in the upper Mississippi river.

Although sediment is a natural constituent of rivers, excess loading to rivers and streams is a leading cause of impairment and biodiversity loss. Remedial actions require identification of the sources and mechanisms of sediment supply. This task is complicated by the scale and complexity of large watersheds as well as changes in climate and land use that alter the drivers of sediment supply.

Health care improvement and continuing interprofessional education: continuing interprofessional development to improve patient outcomes.

Health care improvement and continuing professional education must be better understood if we are to promote continuous service improvement through interprofessional learning in the workplace. We propose that situating interprofessional working, interprofessional learning, work-based learning, and service improvement within a framework of social learning theory creates a continuum between work-based interprofessional learning and service improvement in which each is integral to the other. This continuum provides a framework for continuing interprofessional development that enables service improvement in the workplace to serve as a vehicle through which individual professionals and teams can continually enhance patient care through working and learning together.

Using patient stories to inspire quality improvement within the NHS Modernization Agency collaborative programmes.

The importance of obtaining the opinions of service users has long been recognized and, traditionally, most contact has focused on measuring their satisfaction with the services they receive. However, there is little evidence that this has had much impact on improving care. The Discovery Interview Process, a technique for listening to patients and carers and using their narratives to improve care, is discussed in this article.

The Dorset Seedcorn Project: interprofessional learning and continuous quality improvement in primary care.

There is a need to develop models of practice-based learning that are effective in bringing about improvement in the quality of care that patients receive. This paper describes a facilitated practice-based project where five general practices in Dorset formed interprofessional teams that worked over a six-month period using a continuous quality improvement (CQI) approach to make a change in areas of importance to them. All the teams completed the project and planned and implemented demonstrable changes.