Application of Deep Learning Method for Daily Streamflow Time-Series Prediction: A Case Study of the Kowmung River at Cedar Ford, Australia

Abstract

Sustainable management of water supplies faces a comprehensive challenge due to global climate change. Improving forecasts of streamflow based on erratic precipitation is a significant activity nowadays. In recent years, the techniques of data-driven have been widely used in the hydrological parameter’s prediction especially streamflow. In the current research, a deep learning model namely Long Short-Term Memory (LSTM), and two conventional machine learning models namely, Random Forest (RF), and Tree Boost (TB) were used to predict the streamflow of the Kowmung river at Cedar Ford in Australia. Different scenarios proposed to determine the optimal combination of input predictor variables, and the input predictor variables were selected based on the auto-correlation function (ACF). Model output was evaluated using indices of the root mean square error (RMSE), and the Nash and Sutcliffe coefficient (NSE). The findings showed that the LSTM model outperformed RF and TB in predicting the streamflow with RMSE and NSE equal to 102.411, and 0.911 respectively. for the LSTM model. The proposed model could adopt by hydrologists to solve the problems associated with forecasting daily streamflow with high precision. This study may not be generalized because of the geographical condition and the nature of the data for each location.