River flow forecasting using wavelet and cross‐wavelet transform models

Abstract

AbstractIn this study, short‐term river flood forecasting models based on wavelet and cross‐wavelet constituent components were developed and evaluated for forecasting daily stream flows with lead times equal to 1, 3, and 7 days. These wavelet and cross‐wavelet models were compared with artificial neural network models and simple perseverance models. This was done using data from the Skrwa Prawa River watershed in Poland. Numerical analysis was performed on daily maximum stream flow data from the Parzen station and on meteorological data from the Plock weather station in Poland. Data from 1951 to 1979 was used to train the models while data from 1980 to 1983 was used to test the models. The study showed that forecasting models based on wavelet and cross‐wavelet constituent components can be used with great accuracy as a stand‐alone forecasting method for 1 and 3 days lead time river flood forecasting, assuming that there are no significant trends in the amplitude for the same Julian day year‐to‐year, and that there is a relatively stable phase shift between the flow and meteorological time series. It was also shown that forecasting models based on wavelet and cross‐wavelet constituent components for forecasting river floods are not accurate for longer lead time forecasting such as 7 days, with the artificial neural network models providing more accurate results. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.