Application of a neural network model in establishing a stage–discharge relationship for a tidal river

This paper presents the applicability of neural network (NN) modelling for forecasting and filtering problems. The multilayer feedforward (MLFF) network was first constructed to forecast the tidal‐level variations at the mouth of the River Chao Phraya in Thailand. Unlike the well‐known conventional harmonic analysis, the NN model uses a set of previous data for learning and then forecasting directly the time‐series of tidal levels. It was found that lead time of 1 to 24 hourly tidal levels can be predicted successfully using only a short‐time hourly learning data. The MLFF network was further used to establish a stage–discharge relationship for the tidal river. The results show a considerably better performance of the NN model over the conventional models. In addition, the stage–discharge relationship obtained by the NN model can indicate reasonably well the important behaviour of the tidal influences. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The Hat Yai 2000 flood: the worst flood in Thai history

Hat Yai, the largest commercial and tourist city in southern Thailand, is subjected to regular flood events, primarily during the northeast monsoon period. Flooding in this region is recognized as a serious disaster in terms of frequency, rate of risk, and affected areas. The monsoon of 21–25 November 2000 caused extremely heavy rain in the southern part of Thailand, resulting in a great flood occupying Hat Yai. This caused significant damage. Therefore, the use of both structural and non‐structural measures is mandatory to reduce the economic losses and the risk for society. This paper investigates two modelling approaches for flood prevention and mitigation of Hat Yai city. First, a hard computing approach by a physically distributed model was applied to study the flood behaviour in a two‐dimensional floodplain flow. Second, a soft computing approach using a neuro‐genetic algorithm was used to develop a flood‐forecasting tool. It was found that the great flood of 2000 can be simulated well by the FLO‐2D model. Computed discharges and flood level in the floodplain are close to the observed data. Countermeasures using diversion canals are guaranteed to accelerate the floodwater drainage to Songkla Lake, significantly reducing the flood impact to the people. In addition, the flood forecasting technique developed in this study can give satisfactory results. This would be very useful as a flood‐warning tool for the community Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Bias-corrected CMIP6 climate model projection over Southeast Asia

Theoretical and Applied Climatology - In this article, we employ statistical bias-correction to examine the changing climate of the latest 18 Coupled Model Intercomparison Project Phase 6 (CMIP6)...     

Developing a hybrid multi‐model for peak flood forecasting

The present study aims to develop a hybrid multi‐model using the soft computing approach. The model is a combination of a fuzzy logic, artificial neural network (ANN) and genetic algorithm (GA). While neural networks are low‐level computational structures that perform well dealing with raw data, fuzzy logic deal with reasoning on a higher level by using linguistic information acquired from domain experts. However, fuzzy systems lack the ability to learn and cannot adjust themselves to a new environment. Moreover, experts occasionally make mistakes and thus some rules used in a system may be false. A network type structure of the present hybrid model is a multi‐layer feed‐forward network, the main part is a fuzzy system based on the first‐order Sugeno fuzzy model with a fuzzification and a defuzzification processes. The consequent parameters are determined by least square method. The back‐propagation is applied to adjust weights of network. Then, the antecedent parameters of the membership function are updated accordingly by the gradient descent method. The GA was applied to select the fuzzy rule. The hybrid multi‐model was used to forecast the flood level at Chiang Mai (under the big flood 2005) and the Koriyama flood (2003) in Japan. The forecasting results are evaluated using standard global goodness of fit statistic, efficient index (EI), the root mean square error (RMSE) and the peak flood error. Moreover, the results are compared to the results of a neuro‐genetic model (NGO) and ANFIS model using the same input and output variables. It was found that the hybrid multi‐model can be used successfully with an efficiency index (EI) more than 0·95 (for Chiang Mai flood up to 12 h ahead forecasting) and more than 0·90 (for Koriyama flood up to 8 h ahead forecasting). In general, all of three models can predict the water level with satisfactory results. However, the hybrid model gave the best flood peak estimation among the three models. Therefore, the use of fuzzy rule base, which is selected by GA in the hybrid multi‐model helps to improve the accuracy of flood peak. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.