In a flood-prone region, quick and accurate flood forecasting is imperative. It can extend the lead time for issuing disaster warnings and allow sufficient time for habitants in hazardous areas to take appropriate action, such as evacuation. In this paper, two hybrid models based on recent artificial intelligence technology, namely, the genetic algorithm-based artificial neural network (ANN-GA) and the adaptive-network-based fuzzy inference system (ANFIS), are employed for flood forecasting in a channel reach of the Yangtze River in China. An empirical linear regression model is used as the benchmark for comparison of their performances. Water levels at a downstream station, Han-Kou, are forecasted by using known water levels at the upstream station, Luo-Shan. When cautious treatment is made to avoid overfitting, both hybrid algorithms produce better accuracy in performance than the linear regression model. The ANFIS model is found to be optimal, but it entails a large number of parameters. The performance of the ANN-GA model is also good, yet it requires longer computation time and additional modeling parameters.
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