Application of Artificial Neural Network for estimation of daily maximum snow depth in Korea

Abstract

This study estimated the daily maximum snow depth using the Artificial Neural Network (ANN) model in Korean Peninsula. First, the optimal ANN model structure was determined through the trial-and-error approach. As a result, daily precipitation, daily mean temperature, and daily minimum temperature were chosen as the input data of the ANN. The number of hidden layer was set to 1 and the number of nodes in the hidden layer was set to 10. In case of using the observed value as the input data of the ANN model, the cross validation correlation coefficient was 0.87, which is higher than that of the case in which the daily maximum snow depth was spatially interpolated using the Ordinary Kriging method (0.40). In order to investigate the performance of the ANN model for estimating the daily maximum snow depth of the ungauged area, the input data of the ANN model was spatially interpolated using Ordinary Kriging. In this case, the correlation coefficient of 0.49 was obtained. The performance of the ANN model in mountainous areas above 200m above sea level was found to be somewhat lower than that in the rest of the study area. This result of this study implies that the ANN model can be used effectively for the accurate and immediate estimation of the maximum snow depth over the whole country.