Impacts of river engineering on river channel behaviour : implications for managing downstream flood risk

Although knowledge of sediment transport has improved over the last 25 years, our understanding of bedload transfer and sediment delivery is still based on a limited set of observations or on models that make assumptions on hydraulic and sediment transport processes. This study utilises repeat lidar survey data of the River Caldew above the City of Carlisle in the UK to investigate the balance of erosion and deposition associated with channel switching from an engineered and managed single thread channel to a naturalising incipient wandering system. Over the 11-year survey period (four bankfull flood events) around 271,000 m3 of sediment were delivered to the river and floodplain and 197,000 m3 eroded suggesting that storage rates of around 7000 m3/annum occurred. The balance of erosion and deposition is influenced by channelisation with very restricted overbank sedimentation and only limited local and transient in-channel bar deposition along the engineered reach (8000 m3 eroded). This contrasts with the activity of the naturalising reach downstream where a developing wandering channel system is acting to store coarse sediment in-stream as large bar complexes and the associated upstream aggrading plane bed reaches and overbank as splay deposits (87,000 m3 stored). Such behavior suggests that naturalisation of channelised systems upstream of flood vulnerable urban areas can have a significant impact on sediment induced flooding downstream. This conclusion must, however, be moderated in the light of the relatively small volumes of material needed to instigate local aggradation in over-capacity urban channels

Recruitment to clinical trials : a meta-ethnographic synthesis of studies of reasons for participation

Peer reviewedPostprin

Why Health and Social Care Support for People with Long-Term Conditions Should be Oriented Towards Enabling Them to Live Well

This research was funded by The Health Foundation (a charity working to improve the quality of healthcare in the UK) via (a) a commission on conceptualising collaborative care, (b) an Open Insight initiative project on re-conceptualising support for self-management (reference 7209), and (c) a contribution towards salary funding for Alan Cribb. At the University of Aberdeen, Vikki Entwistle works within the Health Services Research Unit, which is core funded by the Chief Scientist Office of the Scottish Government’s Health and Social Care Directorates. Health Foundation and Scottish Government staff are among those who have participated in knowledge exchange events related to the two projects. The views expressed in the paper are those of the authors and are not necessarily shared by funders or workshop participants. The authors accept full responsibility for this paper. Open access via Springer Compact AgreementPeer reviewedPublisher PD

Small unmanned aerial model accuracy for photogrammetrical fluvial bathymetric survey

Fluvial systems offer a challenging and varied environment for topographic survey, displaying a rapidly varying morphology, vegetation assemblage and degree of submergence. Traditionally theodolite or GPS based systems have been used to capture cross-section and breakline based topographic data which has subsequently been interpolated. Advances in survey technology has resulted in an improved ability to capture larger volumes of information with infrared terrestrial and aerial LiDAR systems capturing high density (<0.02 m) point data across terrestrial surfaces. The rise of Structure from Motion (SfM) photogrammetry, coupled with small unmanned aerial vehicles (sUAV), has potential to record elevation data at reach scale sub decimetre density. The approach has the additional advantage over LiDAR of seeing through clear water to capture bed detail, whilst also generating ortho-rectified photographic mosaics of the survey reach. However, data accuracy has yet to be comprehensively assessed. Here we present a survey protocol for sUAV deployment and provide a reach scale comparison between a theodolite and SfM sUAV survey on the River Sprint, Kendal, the River Ehen at Egremont, England and the Afon Elwy, at Llanfair Talhaiarn, Wales. Comparative analysis between theodolite survey and SfM suggest similar accuracy and precision across terrestrial surfaces with error lowest over solid surfaces, increasing with vegetation complexity. Submerged SfM data, captured bed levels generally to within ±0.25 m with only a weak relationship recorded between error and flow depth. Significantly, associated error when linked to channel D50 highlights the ability of unmanned aerial vehicles to capture accurate fluvial data across a range of river biotopes and depths to 2.4 m