MONTHLY STREAM FLOWS ESTIMATION IN THE KARASU RIVER OF EUPHRATES BASIN WITH ARTIFICIAL NEURAL NETWORKS APPROACH

Abstract

This study aims to estimate streamflow values with artificial neural networks (ANN) using various meteorological parameters. In developing the ANN model, various combinations of precipitation, air temperatures, and potential evapotranspiration values were used as inputs, and streamflow values were obtained. Meteorological data is divided into 70% train, 15% test, and 15% validation. In the model's design, various training algorithms, network architecture, input combinations, and the number of iterations were tried, and the most suitable model was tested. Correlation coefficient (R), coefficient of determination (R2), absolute error (AE), and absolute relative error (ARE) coefficients were compared, and the most suitable model was selected. According to the analysis results, the optimal model was obtained using 2000 iterations, the architecture of the 4-4-1 model, and the Quasi-Newton algorithm. It was determined that the ANNs successfully modeled the rainfall-runoff relationship and produced reliable estimates. In addition, it was revealed that the inclusion of potential evapotranspiration values obtained by the Thornthwaite method into the model increases the model's success.