Bankfull discharge bed

Limit beyond which the water spills into the floodplain. It corresponds to the high-flow (or morphogenetic flow). Calculating the width of the bankfull discharge bed is a convenient measurement unit to describe the relationship between the size of the watercourse and its morphology. The development of a bed model (straight, meandering, braided, "anastomosed") actually depends both on the valley slope and bankfull discharge, two factors that define the overall energy of the swollen river.