Bakhmeteff\u27s, Von Seggern\u27s, and the Standard Step methods were chosen for a comparative study of backwater profile determinations made with the assistance of a digital computer. This study concentrated on the M-l type of curves for different kind of prismatic channels; i.e. rectangular, trapezoidal, and parabolic channels. From the results obtained by each method for different channels, the consistency between the several methods and their applicability to all shapes of channel had been studied. Also the effect of the number of reaches used in flow profile determinations, the effect of the use of an average value of (1-ß), hydraulic exponents n and m in Bakhmeteff\u27s and Von Seggern\u27s methods, were investigated. In order to explore the possibility of approximating a river profile by means of an assumed prismatic channel, prismatic channels were assumed from the Missouri River cross sections. The effect of the change of width in rectangular channels with steady flow was studied for an M-3 profile. The effect of the different methods of evaluating the change in kinetic energy used by Bakhmeteff and Von Seggern become distinctive in rapid flow profile determinations --Abstract, page ii
