Development of roughness updating based on artificial neural network in a river hydraulic model for flash flood forecasting

Flood is the worst weather-related hazard in Taiwan because of steep terrain and storm. The tropical storm often results in disastrous flash flood. To provide reliable forecast of water stages in rivers is indispensable for proper actions in the emergency response during flood. The river hydraulic model based on dynamic wave theory using an implicit finite-difference method is developed with river roughness updating for flash flood forecast. The artificial neural network (ANN) is employed to update the roughness of rivers in accordance with the observed river stages at each time-step of the flood routing process. Several typhoon events at Tamsui River are utilized to evaluate the accuracy of flood forecasting. The results present the adaptive n-values of roughness for river hydraulic model that can provide a better flow state for subsequent forecasting at significant locations and longitudinal profiles along rivers.