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Flood mapping is a crucial tool for assisting urban planning and emergency response plans and, consequently, preventing or reducing the risks associated with flood disasters. However, in developing countries that often lack or have limited data, to produce such maps is a challenging task. When topographic data are lacking, digital elevation models (DEMs) derived from the Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (SRTM) are frequently used as a freely available surrogate, albeit with additional uncertainty. This work presents an integrated framework to investigate flood inundation areas using a Bayesian approach, while including steps for calibrating SRTM data and determining the river bathymetry below the WSE. A flood event in the Itaqui municipality, in the state of Rio Grande do Sul, southern Brazil is used to demonstrate the proposed framework. Findings suggest benefits in using calibrated SRTM DEMs for flood mapping regardless of whether flood inundation areas were derived directly from projections of WSEs on the terrain or based on hydraulic simulations. Results further highlight the potential of using a Bayesian approach to improve quality and reliability of flood hazards maps, especially in regions that lack topographic data. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Brazil has one of the highest prevalence of cesarean sections in the world. The private health system is responsible for carrying out most of these surgical procedures. A quality improvement project called Adequate Childbirth Project ("Projeto Parto Adequado"- PPA) was developed to identify models of care for labor and childbirth, which place value on vaginal birth and reduce the frequency of cesarean sections without a clinical indication. This research aims to evaluate the implementation of PPA in private hospitals in Brazil. Method: Evaluative hospital-based survey, carried out in 2017, in 12 private hospitals, including 4,322 women. We used a Bayesian network strategy to develop a theoretical model for implementation analysis. We estimated and compared the degree of implementation of two major driving components of PPA—"Participation of women" and "Reorganization of care" – among the 12 hospitals and according to type of hospital (belonging to a health insurance company or not). To assess whether the degree of implementation was correlated with the rate of vaginal birth data we used the Bayesian Network and compared the difference between the group "Exposed to the PPA model of care" and the group "Standard of care model". Results: PPA had a low degree of implementation in both components "Reorganization of Care" (0.17 – 0.32) and "Participation of Women" (0.21 – 0.34). The combined implementation score was 0.39–0.64 and was higher in hospitals that belonged to a health insurance company. The vaginal birth rate was higher in hospitals with a higher degree of implementation of PPA. Conclusion: The degree of implementation of PPA was low, which reflects the difficulties in changing childbirth care practices. Nevertheless, PPA increased vaginal birth rates in private hospitals with higher implementation scores. PPA is an ongoing quality improvement project and these results demonstrate the need for changes in the involvement of women and the care offered by the provider. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]