“Safety check flood” as defined by Bulletin 125 (p.191) “represents the most extreme flood conditions to which the dam could be subjected without failure, but also with a low safety margin (scenario limit). In this case, a limited overtopping may be permitted for
concrete dams, but not for embankment dams”.

It is confusing to keep for this flood the name of “design flood” because the design will be mainly based upon the Safety Check Flood and it could be better to choose an other name
such as “Operational Flood” (O.F.).