A Comparison of SWAT and ANN Models for Daily Runoff Simulation in Different Climatic Zones of Peninsular Spain

Patricia Jimeno-Sáez,Javier Senent-Aparicio,David Pulido-Velazquez,Julio Pérez-Sánchez

doi:10.3390/w10020192

Patricia Jimeno-Sáez, Javier Senent-Aparicio + Show 2 more

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https://doi.org/10.3390/w10020192

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Abstract

Streamflow data are of prime importance to water-resources planning and management, and the accuracy of their estimation is very important for decision making. The Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) and Artificial Neural Network (ANN) models have been evaluated and compared to find a method to improve streamflow estimation. For a more complete evaluation, the accuracy and ability of these streamflow estimation models was also established separately based on their performance during different periods of flows using regional flow duration curves (FDCs). Specifically, the FDCs were divided into five sectors: very low, low, medium, high and very high flow. This segmentation of flow allows analysis of the model performance for every important discharge event precisely. In this study, the models were applied in two catchments in Peninsular Spain with contrasting climatic conditions: Atlantic and Mediterranean climates. The results indicate that SWAT and ANNs were generally good tools in daily streamflow modelling. However, SWAT was found to be more successful in relation to better simulation of lower flows, while ANNs were superior at estimating higher flows in all cases.

Highlights

Streamflow is one of the most important variables of the hydrological cycle
We have evaluated and compared Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) and Artificial Neural Network (ANN) results based on four statistics including Nash-Sutcliffe efficiency coefficient (NSE), percent bias (PBIAS), root mean squared error (RMSE) and coefficient of determination (R2 ), which are the most widely used in hydrology studies
We proposed the use of SWAT, a semi-physically based model, and ANN, a machine learning technique, to simulate the daily streamflow values and compare the results of both models in order to analyse their capabilities

Summary

Introduction

Streamflow is one of the most important variables of the hydrological cycle. Conceptual hydrologic models that simulate streamflow in a watershed take into consideration various processes of the hydrological cycle through mathematical formulation [4]. Numerous hydrologic models have been developed to simulate the hydrologic processes and are important tools for estimating streamflow values, capable of establishing rainfall-runoff relationships [5]. SWAT is a conceptual semi-distributed model and currently is one of the most popular hydrologic models for watershed scale [7].

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