Search

Model accuracy and running speed are the two key issues for flood warning in urban areas. Traditional hydrodynamic models, which have a rigorous physical mechanism for flood routine, have been widely adopted for water level prediction of rainwater pipe network. However, with the amount of pipes increasing, both the running speed and data availability of hydrodynamic models would be decreased rapidly. To achieve a real-time prediction for the water level of the rainwater pipe network, a new framework based on a machine learning method was proposed in this paper. The spatial and temporal autocorrelation of water levels for adjacent manholes was revealed through theoretical analysis, and then a support vector machine (SVM)-based machine learning model was developed, in which the water levels of adjacent manholes and rivers-near-by-outlets at the last time step were chosen as the independent variables, and then the water levels at the current time step can be computed by the proposed machine learning model with calibrated parameters. The proposed framework was applied in Fuzhou city, China. It turns out that the proposed machine learning method can forecast the water level of the rainwater pipe network with good accuracy and running speed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]