Flood Forecasting Using Artificial Neural Network

Abstract

The process of assessing the timing, amount, and period of flood events based on observed features of a river basin is known as flood forecasting. Floods cause lots of damage to properties and create a risk to human life. Flood forecasting is critical for developing appropriate flood risk management strategies, reducing flood hazards, evacuating people from flood-prone areas. The main objective of this study is to apply artificial neural networks for forecasting of river flow in the Deo River, located in Gujarat. Rainfall and discharge are the parameters considered for model development. The developed model is validated to test the accuracy of the model. Trained and validated models are evaluated using performance indices. Six alternative flood prediction models have been developed using ANN. These models are developed based on various training algorithms. A single layer feed forward back-propagation neural network with six different training algorithms (Scaled conjugate gradient, Levenberg Marquardt, Resilient back-propagation, Conjugate gradient, and Cascade forward back propagation, Bayesian regularization) was developed, with 70% of the data used for training and 30% for validation. The created models’ performance is assessed using statistical performance parameters. The best performance was obtained with an ANN model developed using the Cascade forward back-propagation training algorithm, which had a coefficient of correlation (r) of 0.83, a coefficient of determination (R2) of 0.70, and a root mean squared error (RMSE) of 5.58 for training and a coefficient of correlation (r) of 0.89, a coefficient of determination (R2) of 0.70, and a root mean squared error (RMSE) of 7.27 for validation. The forecast inflow is very close to the observed values. This study shows that ANN can be used to successfully predict floods, and the model developed can be used by flood control departments across the country for flood forecasting.