Mapping Bankfull Geometry with MATLAB: Introducing the BankfullMapper Toolbox

Join us for a 1-hour webinar featuring BankfullMapper (Delchiaro et al., 2025), an open-source MATLAB toolbox designed to streamline the identification of bankfull geometry from high-resolution topographic data. The bankfull stage (where water first spills onto the floodplain) is a critical threshold for river morphology, flood hazard assessment, and geomorphic analysis. Traditional methods to detect this stage are often time-consuming, while BankfullMapper provides a semi-automated workflow based on hydraulic-depth analysis (Williams, 1978). Built on the TopoToolbox platform, the tool extracts bankfull elevations, evaluates alternative peak-detection modes, computes section gradients, estimates discharge with Manning’s equation, and generates spatial visualizations of bankfull metrics.

Michele Delchiaro, the creator of BankfullMapper, will deliver a live demonstration of the toolbox, showcasing its workflow, key features, and practical applications.

References and Resources

• Delchiaro, M., Ruscitto, V., Schwanghart, W., Brignone, E., Piacentini, D., and Troiani, F. , 2025. BankfullMapper: a semi-automated MATLAB tool on high-resolution Digital Terrain Models for spatio-temporal monitoring of bankfull geometry and discharge. Comput. Geosci., https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cageo.2025.106001
• Williams, G.P., 1978. Bank-full discharge of Rivers. Water Resour. Res., 14 (6), 1141–1154. https://doi.org/10.1029/WR014i006p01141.
• BankfullMapper is available on GitHub (https://github.com/micheledelchiaro/BankfullMapper) and File Exchange (https://www.mathworks.com/matlabcentral/fileexchange/181632-bankfullmapper).