This report describes the results of a study relating flood characteristics to the reference width of the channel.
Data from 79 gaging stations, which would provide estimates of floods of a 10-year recurrence interval and at which channel geometry could be adequately measured in the field, were used in these analyses. The peak discharges for recurrence intervals of 2, 5, 10, 25, and 50 years were determined for each station and are given in tabular form where appropriate.
Features that define the reference width vary with location and stream type. A discussion is given of the features that were used in measuring reference widths.
The relation between the magnitude of floods of various frequencies and the reference width and main-channel slope was reliable with a standard error of about 65 percent for most of the areas of the State; however, no reliable relation could be found for many stream channels in a large area of southeastern New Mexico, and it is recommended that the relation not be used in that area. The reasons for this difficulty is believed to be due to recent channel entrenchment in the area.
