This paper illustrates the application of Multilayer perceptron (MLP) Neural Network (NN) for flow prediction of a Bakhtiari River. Since measurement of variables is time consuming and defining the efficient variable is essential for better performance of NN, alternative method of flow forecasting is needed. The K-Nearest Neighbor (K-NN) method which is a non-parametric regression methodology as indicated by the absence of any parameterized analytical function of the input-output relationship is used in this study. The implementation of each time series technique is investigated and the performances of the models are then compared. It is concluded that discharge in one day-ahead and Antecedent Precipitation Index (API) for seven days-ahead are the most important inputs and NN model has little better result than nearest neighbor method.

Keywords