Estimation of Suspended Sediment Yield in Natural Rivers Using Machine-coded Linear Genetic Programming

Estimation of suspended sediment yield is subject to uncertainty and bias. Many methods have been developed for estimating sediment yield but they still lack accuracy and robustness. This paper investigates the use of a machine-coded linear genetic programming (LGP) in daily suspended sediment estimation. The accuracy of LGP is compared with those of the Gene-expression programming (GEP), which is another branch of GP, and artificial neural network (ANN) technique. Daily streamflow and suspended sediment data from two stations on the Tongue River in Montana, USA, are used as case studies. Root mean square error (RMSE) and determination coefficient (R<Superscript>2</Superscript>) statistics are used for evaluating the accuracy of the models. Based on the comparison of the results, it is found that the LGP performs better than the GEP and ANN techniques. The GEP was also found to be better than the ANN. For the upstream and downstream stations, it is found that the LGP models with RMSE=175 ton/day, R<Superscript>2</Superscript>=0.941 and RMSE=254 ton/day, R<Superscript>2</Superscript>=0.959 in test period is superior in estimating daily suspended sediments than the best accurate GEP model with RMSE=231 ton/day, R<Superscript>2</Superscript>=0.941 and RMSE=331 ton/day, R<Superscript>2</Superscript>=0.934, respectively. Copyright Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2011