Estimation of the suspended sediment loud of Karaj River using fuzzy logic and neural networks

Correct estimation of suspended sediment transported by a river is an important practice in water structure design, environmental problems and water quality issues. Conventionally, sediment rating curve used for suspended sediment estimation in rivers. In this method discharge and sediment discharge or concentration related using regression relation that generally is exponential model. Respect to uncertainty and nonlinear relation between discharge and sediment concentration, sediment rating curve has not enough efficiency for this purpose. In this study using Artificial Intelligent (Fuzzy Logic and Artificial Neural Network), suspended sediment in Karaj River was estimated. First, various neural network and fuzzy logic models established. For neural network and fuzzy logic, models with four neuron in hidden layers and FIS (Fuzzy Inference System) with four Gaussian membership functions, respectively were selected as the best structure. Finally, the results showed that fuzzy logic estimates the suspended sediment loud better than the other techniques and therefore is suggested for estimation of suspended sediment load.