Drought monitoring and prediction have important roles in various aspects of hydrological studies. In the current research, the standardized precipitation index (SPI) was monitored and predicted in ...Peru between 1990 and 2015. The current study proposed a hybrid model, called ANN-FA, for SPI prediction in various time scales (SPI3, SPI6, SPI18, and SPI24). A state-of-the-art firefly algorithm (FA) has been documented as a powerful tool to support hydrological modeling issues. The ANN-FA uses an artificial neural network (ANN) which is coupled with FA for Lima SPI prediction via other stations. Through the intelligent utilization of SPI series from neighbors’ stations as model inputs, the suggested approach might be used to forecast SPI at various time scales in a meteorological station with insufficient data. To conduct this, the SPI3, SPI6, SPI18, and SPI24 were modeled in Lima meteorological station using other meteorological stations’ datasets in Peru. Various error criteria were employed to investigate the performance of the ANN-FA model. Results showed that the ANN-FA is an effective and promising approach for drought prediction and also a multi-station strategy is an effective strategy for SPI prediction in the meteorological station with a lack of data. The results of the current study showed that the ANN-FA approach can help to predict drought with the mean absolute error = 0.22, root mean square error = 0.29, the Pearson correlation coefficient = 0.94, and index of agreement = 0.97 at the testing phase of best estimation (SPI3).
The growing menace of global warming and restrictions on access to water in each region is a huge threat to global hydrological sustainability. Hence, the perspective at which hydrological studies ...are currently being carried out across the world to quantify and understand the water cycle modeling requires a further boost. In the past few decades, the theoretical understanding of machine learning (ML) algorithms for solving engineering issues, and the application of this method to practical problems have made very significant progress. In the field of hydrology, ML has been using for a better understanding of hydrological complexities. Then, using ML-based approaches for hydrological simulation have been a popular method for runoff modeling in recent years; it seems necessary to understand the application of ML in runoff modeling fully. Current research seeks to have an overview for rainfall–runoff modeling using ML approaches in recent years, including integrated and ordinary ML techniques (such as ANFIS, ANN, and SVM models). The main hydrological topics in this review study include surface hydrology, streamflow, rainfall–runoff, and flood modeling via ML approaches. Therefore, in this study, the author has critically reviewed the characteristics of machine learning models in runoff simulation, including advantages and disadvantages of three widely used machine learning models.
•Comments about the application of satellite-derived evapotranspiration in the article by Le et al.•Several key points/limitations of the article by Le et al, were commented.•Some recommendations for ...overcoming the limitations were suggested.
Accurate and timely monitoring of streamflow and its variation is crucial for water resources management in watersheds. This study aimed at evaluating the performance of two process-driven conceptual ...rainfall-runoff models (HBV: Hydrologiska Byråns Vattenbalansavdelning, and NRECA: Non Recorded Catchment Areas) and seven hybrid models based on three artificial intelligence (AI) methods (adaptive neuro-fuzzy inference system (ANFIS), support vector machine (SVM), and group method of data handling (GMDH)) in simulating streamflow in four river basins in Indonesia. HBV and NRECA were developed based on precipitation data. Various combinations of 1-month lagged precipitation data together with outputs of HBV and NRECA were used for developing ANFIS and SVM models, and the best results of ANFIS and SVM formed the inputs to GMDH. Results showed that AI-based hybrid models have generally led to more accurate streamflow estimates compared with HBV and NRECA, and the GMDH model had the best performance at Cipero, Kedungdowo, Notog, and Sukowati stations, with RMSEs of 12.21, 6.07, 20.35, and 24.2 m
3
s
−1
, respectively. More accurate estimation of peak values in training set at Cipero and Sukowati stations, and in both training and testing sets at Kedungdowo station was another advantage of GMDH. Hybrid models based on AI methods can be suitable alternatives to hydrological models, particularly in watersheds where there is a lack of measured data (e.g. climatic parameters, land cover-plant growth data, soil data, stream conditions, and properties of groundwater aquifers), provided that appropriate inputs are used.
Graphical abstract
Field capacity (FC) and permanent wilting point (PWP) are two important properties of the soil when the soil moisture is concerned. Since the determination of these parameters is expensive and ...time-consuming, this study aims to develop and evaluate a new hybrid of artificial neural network model coupled with a whale optimization algorithm (ANN-WOA) as a meta-heuristic optimization tool in defining the FC and the PWP at the basin scale. The simulated results were also compared with other core optimization models of ANN and multilinear regression (MLR). For this aim, a set of 217 soil samples were taken from different regions located across the West and East Azerbaijan provinces in Iran, partially covering four important basins of Lake Urmia, Caspian Sea, Persian Gulf-Oman Sea, and Central-Basin of Iran. Taken samples included portion of clay, sand, and silt together with organic matter, which were used as independent variables to define the FC and the PWP. A 80–20 portion of the randomly selected independent and dependent variable sets were used in calibration and validation of the predefined models. The most accurate predictions for the FC and PWP at the selected stations were obtained by the hybrid ANN-WOA models, and evaluation criteria at the validation phases were obtained as 2.87%, 0.92, and 2.11% respectively for RMSE,
R
2
, and RRMSE for the FC, and 1.78%, 0.92, and 10.02% respectively for RMSE,
R
2
, and RRMSE for the PWP. It is concluded that the organic matter is the most important variable in prediction of FC and PWP, while the proposed ANN-WOA model is an efficient approach in defining the FC and the PWP at the basin scale.
The present study aimed to model reconnaissance drought index (RDI) time series at three various time scales (i.e., RDI-6, RDI-9, RDI-12). Two weather stations located at Iran, namely Tehran and ...Dezful, were selected as the case study. First, support vector regression (SVR) was utilized as the standalone modeling technique. Then, hybrid models were implemented via coupling the standalone SVR with two bio-inspired-based techniques including firefly algorithm (FA) and whale optimization algorithm (WOA) as well as wavelet analysis (W). Accordingly, the hybrid SVR-FA, SVR-WOA, and W-SVR models were proposed. It is worth mentioning that six mother wavelets (i.e., Haar, Daubechies (db2, db4), Coifflet, Symlet, and Fejer-Korovkin) were employed in development of the hybrid W-SVR models. The performance of models was assessed through root mean square error (RMSE), mean absolute error (MAE), Willmott index (WI), and Nash-Sutcliffe efficiency (NSE). Generally, the implemented coupled models illustrated better results than the standalone SVR in modeling the RDI time series of studied locations. Besides, the Coifflet mother wavelet was found to be the best-performing wavelet. The most accurate results were achieved for RDI-12 modeling via the W-SVR utilizing db4(2) at Tehran station (RMSE = 0.253, MAE = 0.174, WI= 0.888, NSE = 0.934) and Coifflet(2) at Dezful station (RMSE = 0.301, MAE = 0.166, WI= 0.910, NSE = 0.936). As a result, the hybrid models developed in the current study, specifically W-SVR ones, can be proposed as suitable alternatives to the single SVR.
Solar radiation is a basic input in many fields of studies and models. However, the low density of solar network stations; the improper distribution of these stations; high cost of purchasing, ...maintaining, and calibrating solar radiation measurement instruments; and frequent errors in the available data are the most important deficiencies in this regard. Thus, researchers are seeking for new and practical methods to estimate solar radiation accurately. The present study aimed to estimate the solar radiation values based on a new hybrid support vector regression model. To this aim, the solar radiation values of all eight target synoptic stations during 1974–2014 were estimated by using Krill-Herd hybrid algorithm (SVR-KHA) method based on support vector regression and implementing neighboring station data. Results indicated that the testing performance of SVR-KHA has a more precision and lower error for all target stations, compared with classical SVR. In addition, the best results were obtained for SVR-KHA3 hybrid model (Isfahan station). Further, the RMSE, MAPE, and
R
2
values for this model were 1.98 MJ/m
2
/day, 7.4%, and 0.93, respectively. In accordance with the results, Krill-Herd algorithm method coupled with support vector regression had a high performance and capability for solar radiation estimation in Iran. In other words, the hybrid SVR-KHA model is more flexible and has less error in modeling the nonlinear and complex systems. Finally, the new method of using neighboring stations can be regarded as an appropriate method for estimating nonlinear phenomenon such as solar radiation.