Comparising Performance of Meta-heuristic Algorithms with the Sediment Rate Curve (Case Study: Zarrineh Rood River)

Due to the flow regime and consequently the sediment regime are not constantly in the watersheds, the prediction of sediment discharge is a great help in estimating and managing the sediment input to hydraulic structures. Measurement of sediment in the usual way is not justified in nowadays and may also lead to human error. Therefore, in this study, three meta-heuristic optimization algorithms, including imperialist competitive algorithm (ICA), grey wolf optimizer algorithm (GWO) and election algorithm (EA), were used to predict the suspended sediment load of the Zarrineh river. In order to calculate the sediment discharge by the models, firstly, the necessary statistics and data were collected from the studied station in the period 1993-2015. After processing the data, 210 corresponding discharge and sediment data were selected. The corresponding discharge-sediment data from the study station were randomly separated into two parts, 70% for training and 30% for testing. In order to evaluate the performance of the algorithms, four statistics consist of R2, RMSE, MAE and the NSE were used. The results showed that GWO algorithm with values of statistical criteria R2=0.96, RMSE=228.86 ton/day, NSE=0.74 and MAE=67.32 ton/day, has a very high accuracy compared to other algorithms used which this would lead to comprehensive planning for the design and construction of hydraulic structures.