Evaluation of the Application of Artificial Neural Networks and Adaptive Neuro-Fuzzy Inference Systems for Rainfall-Runoff Modelling in Zayandeh_rood Dam Basin

Abstract

During recent few decades, due to the importance of the availability of water, and therefore the necesity of predicting run off resulted from rain fall there has been an increase in developing and implementation of new suitable method for prediction of run off using precipitation data. One of these approaches that have been developed in several areas of sciences including water related fields, is soft computing techniques such as artificial neural networks and fuzzy logic systems. This research was designed to evaluate the applicability of artificial neural network and adaptive neuro –fuzzy inference system to model rainfall-runoff process in Zayandeh_rood dam basin. It must be mentioned that, data have been analysed using Wingamma software, to select appropriate type and number of training input data before they can be used in the models. Then, it has been tried to evaluated applicability of artificial neural networks and neuro-fuzzy techniques to predict runoff generated from daily rainfall. Finally, the accuracy of the results produced by these methods has been compared using statistical criterion. Results taken from this research show that artificial neural networks and neuro-fuzzy technique presented different outputs in different conditions in terms of type and number of inputs variables, but both method have been able to produce acceptable results when suitable input variables and network structures are used.

Keywords

• artificial neural network
• Adaptive Neuro – Fuzzy Inference System
• Rainfall-Runoff
• Zayandeh_rood Dam Catchment
• Genetic algorithm
• Gamma Test