L’évolution du lit du Saint-Laurent dans le secteur de Contrecoeur (Québec) depuis un siècle

Des levés hydrographiques du gouvernement canadien datant de 1898, 1945 et 1988, ont été comparés afin d'établir la cartographie des changements survenus au lit du Saint-Laurent dans le secteur de Contrecoeur, à mi-chemin entre Montréal et Sorel. Depuis 1850, la dynamique hydrosédimentaire de ce tronçon long de 8 km a dû se rééquilibrer au fur et à mesure de l'agrandissement du chenal de navigation maritime. Au moyen d'un logiciel de géomatique, des modèles bathymétriques détaillés ont été élaborés à partir des cartes de levés historiques fournies par le Service hydrographique du Canada. Après ajustement des cadres géographiques et du zéro des cartes, les patrons spatiaux de changements bathymétriques consécutifs à l'érosion ou à la sédimentation ont pu être déterminés par comparaison de ces modèles. Les cartes qui en résultent illustrent les principales étapes de l'agrandissement de la voie maritime ainsi que l'évolution des dépôts de déblais de dragage. Il appert, par exemple, qu'un volume important de déblais laissé à la marge ouest du chenal entre 1898 et 1945 a été dispersé vers l'aval entre 1945 et 1988, après avoir été remis en suspension par les courants et les vagues en marge du chenal maritime. L'intérêt principal de notre étude réside néanmoins dans l'éclairage nouveau qu'il donne à la dynamique d'ensemble du lit fluvial, bien au delà du chenal dragué. Entre 1898 et 1988, de vastes secteurs du lit ont été recouverts de 0,5 à 1 m additionnel de sédiments. Le chenal central à l'ouest de l'île Saint-Ours semble particulièrement touché, le taux moyen de sédimentation y ayant été de 1,5 cm/a entre 1945 et 1988. L'instabilité du lit s'est accélérée depuis 1945 et semble être attribuable, en partie du moins, à la perturbation de l'équilibre hydrosédimentaire causée par l'agrandissement répété du chenal maritime.Canadian government hydrographie surveys from 1898, 1945 and 1988 are compared to reveal long-term patterns of bathymétrie change in the St. Lawrence River, in the Contrecoeur area between Montréal and Sorel. Since 1850, the hydraulic and sedimentary balance of this reach has been affected by repeated dredging to expand the main navigation channel. Using GIS software, detailed bathymétrie models of the reach for each of the years 1898, 1945 and 1988 were produced by interpolation through the archival soundings for each of these periods provided by the Canadian Hydrographie Service. After careful adjustment of reference water planes and planimetric coordinate systems, maps of bed changes were derived by comparing the different models. Major expansions of the navigation channel can be followed as well as the evolution of the main dredge spoil areas. In particular, considerable volumes of dredge spoil deposited at the margin of the ship channel between 1898 and 1945 are seen to have been re-entrained and dispersed downstream by 1988. Most interestingly, the maps of bed changes reveal substantial rates of sediment deposition over much of the river bed, well away from the ship channel. Over wide areas, deposition of between 0.5 and 1 m of new sediment since 1898 is observed. Bed aggradation has been particularly intense in the central channel west of Ile Saint-Ours, where it has averaged 1.5 cm/year between 1945 and 1988. In part at least, this tendency to bed aggradation over much of the river may be a reaction to the man-made concentration of the flow in the enlarged ship channel.Hydrographische Vermessungen von 1898, 1945 und 1988 wurden verglichen, um die Veranderungen im Bett des Sankt Lorenz im Bereich von Contrecoeur kartographisch festzuhalten. Seit 1850 musste die hydrosedimentare Dynamik dieses 8 km Iangen Stùckes entsprechend der Verbreiterung der Seewegfahrrinne jeweils ein neues Gleichgewicht finden. Mit Hilfe einer geomatischen Software wurden detaillierte Tiefenmodelle erstellt, ausgehend von Karten historischer Vermessungen, die der kanadische hydrographische Service zur Verfugung stellte. Nach Abstimmung der geographischen Rahmen und der Planimetrie konnten durch Vergleich dieser Modelle die ràumlichen Muster der Tiefenverànderungen aufgrund von Erosion oder Sedimentierung bestimmt werden. Die so entstandenen Karten illustrieren die wichtigsten Etappen der Vergrosserung des Seewegs sowie die Entwicklung der AbIagerungen von Baggeraushubmaterial. Es scheint, z.B. dass eine bedeutende Menge von Aushubmaterial, das man am westlichsten Rand der Fahrrinne zwischen 1898 und 1945 liess, zwischen 1945 und 1988 stromabwàrts verstreut wurde, nachdem es durch Stromungen und Wellen am Rand des Seewegs wieder aufgelôst worden war. Das Hauptinteresse unserer Untersuchung bes-teht jedoch in dem neuen Licht, das sie auf die Gesamtdynamik des Flussbettes wirft, weit iiber die ausgebaggerte Fahrrinne hinaus. Zwischen 1898 und 1988 wurden weite Abschnitte des Flussbettes mit einer zusàtzlichen Sedimentschicht von 0,5 bis 1 m bedeckt. Die zentrale Fahrrinne westlich von der lnsel St. Ours scheint besonders betroffen, die durchschnittliche Sedimentierungsrate war hier 1,5cm/Jahr zwischen 1945 und 1988. Die Labilitat des Flussbettes hat sich seit 1945 beschleunigt und scheint mindestens zum Teil auf die Stôrung des hydro-sedimentaren Gleichgewichts durch die wiederholte Vergrosserung des Seewegs zurùckzufùhren zu sein

Temporal Development of Scour Holes around Submerged Stream Deflectors

Although the deflector structures used in many fish habitat rehabilitation schemes are frequently overtopped, few studies have examined the scour patterns created around submerged models. Furthermore, laboratory studies typically test smooth-surfaced structures, when those installed in natural rivers are generally made of logs or boulders. This study uses rough-surfaced, paired deflectors to investigate the temporal evolution of scour for three overtopping ratios in identical approach flow conditions in a flume. Results show that when maintaining identical discharge, raising deflector height and thus reducing the overtopping ratio (flow depth / structure height), an increased depth and volume of scour is generated next to the structures. The location of maximum depth and the rate of scouring with time is similar for the two highest deflectors (overtopping ratios of 1.22 and 1.83), but different for the lowest deflector model (overtopping ratio of 3.67). In order to improve the success rate of river restoration projects using in-stream structures, the overtopping ratio should be used in equations that predict scour depth evolution with time

Multi-level analysis of electronic health record adoption by health care professionals: A study protocol

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>The electronic health record (EHR) is an important application of information and communication technologies to the healthcare sector. EHR implementation is expected to produce benefits for patients, professionals, organisations, and the population as a whole. These benefits cannot be achieved without the adoption of EHR by healthcare professionals. Nevertheless, the influence of individual and organisational factors in determining EHR adoption is still unclear. This study aims to assess the unique contribution of individual and organisational factors on EHR adoption in healthcare settings, as well as possible interrelations between these factors.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>A prospective study will be conducted. A stratified random sampling method will be used to select 50 healthcare organisations in the Quebec City Health Region (Canada). At the individual level, a sample of 15 to 30 health professionals will be chosen within each organisation depending on its size. A semi-structured questionnaire will be administered to two key informants in each organisation to collect organisational data. A composite adoption score of EHR adoption will be developed based on a Delphi process and will be used as the outcome variable. Twelve to eighteen months after the first contact, depending on the pace of EHR implementation, key informants and clinicians will be contacted once again to monitor the evolution of EHR adoption. A multilevel regression model will be applied to identify the organisational and individual determinants of EHR adoption in clinical settings. Alternative analytical models would be applied if necessary.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>The study will assess the contribution of organisational and individual factors, as well as their interactions, to the implementation of EHR in clinical settings.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>These results will be very relevant for decision makers and managers who are facing the challenge of implementing EHR in the healthcare system. In addition, this research constitutes a major contribution to the field of knowledge transfer and implementation science.</p

Intermittent turbulent suspension events over sand dunes on the bed of the Fraser River, near Mission, British Columbia

The purpose of this study is to gain some first insights into the role of burst-like turbulent motions in sediment suspension over a sandy channel bed, during typical conditions of strong sediment transport with active bedforms. The focus is the suspension mechanism that maintains sizeable sediment concentrations away from the bed, where much of the downstream transport occurs, rather than entrainment at the sediment boundary itself. Flow components downstream and normal to the mean boundary, along with the output of an optical suspended sediment sensor, were monitored 1 m above the bed. The main study data were collected in a 10 m deep channel of the Fraser River near Mission, British Columbia, Canada. Velocities averaged 1.4 m/s at the surface and 0.9 m/s at the sensors, where mean suspended sediment concentrations were 500 mg/l; decimetre height small dunes on the backs of larger, metre amplitude dunes covered the channel bed. Many hours of data were recorded at 5 Hz, allowing multi-second scale turbulent motions as well as multi-minute oscillations to be resolved in both the velocity and turbidity records. Burst-like "ejection and inrush" motions were identified, producing a high degree of intermittency in momentum exchange: 80% of the mean Reynolds stress at the 1 m level is produced during 12% of the record duration. The burst recurrence period appears to be significantly greater than predicted by applying the conventional outer flow scaling in this environment. It is hypothesised that the non-uniform shear and pressure gradient conditions over the various scales of bedforms on the river floor may somehow affect mean burst periodicity, modifying the recurrence scaling developed over flat boundaries. The determination of a burst recurrence timescale from one-point data is inherently imprecise however and, as elsewhere, a continuous variation of return periods with relative magnitude of extreme (u'v') events is observed. The optical turbidity (OBS) time series reveals that these intermittent burst-like motions are, as expected, very important in vertically mixing sediments across the 1 m level in the flow; for example violent ejections, occurring only 1% of the time and contributing some 10% to mean turbulent momentum flux, appear to account for 6% of the total vertical sediment flux. The statistical association between the momentum and sediment mixing efficiencies of any ejection appears to be only moderately strong, however; very intense suspension can be associated with rather "weak" ejections (in terms of stress), and vice-versa. Differences between momentum and sediment mixing effects of a given ejection may partly be related to the "crossing trajectories effect"; sand grains continually fall out of the eddies that bear them, so the momentum and sediment "contents" of an eddy at 1 m off the bed are not perfectly linked. Turbulent sediment suspension is, like momentum exchange, a highly intermittent process in itself. After selecting turbulent events only for suspension efficiency, the largest ones, occupying only 5% of the time, contribute approximately one half of the total vertical sediment flux. There is no indication that the conventional scaling of burst recurrence corresponds to the occurrence of any distinctive event level for suspension. Interestingly, burst-like turbulent motions are not the only flow oscillations contributing to suspension in the high flow conditions of the study. Multi-minute period flow perturbations at 1 m off the bed significantly assist burst-scale turbulent motions in driving the upward sediment mixing. In summary, turbulent mixing of both momentum and sediment at 1 m over a typical sandy river bed is dominated by intermittent, intense "burst-like" events. However, the extrapolation of intermittent "bursting" concepts and structural constants from small-scale laboratory flows to the larger fluvial environment may be misleading.Arts, Faculty ofGeography, Department ofGraduat

NSERC's HydroNet: A National Research Network to Promote Sustainable Hydropower and Healthy Aquatic Ecosystems

NSERC's HydroNet is a collaborative national fiveyear research program initiated in 2010 involving academic, government, and industry partners. The overarching goal of HydroNet is to improve the understanding of the effects of hydropower operations on aquatic ecosystems, and to provide scientifically defensible and transparent tools to improve the decision-making process associated with hydropower operations. Multiple projects are imbedded under three themes: 1) Ecosystemic analysis of productive capacity of fish habitats (PCFH) in rivers, 2) Mesoscale modelling of the productive capacity of fish habitats in lakes and reservoirs, and 3) Predicting the entrainment risk of fish in hydropower reservoirs relative to power generation operations by combining behavioral ecology and hydraulic engineering. The knowledge generated by HydroNet is essential to balance the competing demands for limited water resources and to ensure that hydropower is sustainable, maintains healthy aquatic ecosystems and a vibrant Canadian economy