Application of Gene Expression Programming and Support Vector Regression models to Modeling and Prediction Monthly precipitation

Estimating and predicting precipitation and achieving its runoff play an important role to correct management and exploitation of basins, management of dams and reservoirs, minimizing the flood damages and droughts, and water resource management, so they are considered by hydrologists. The appropriate performance of intelligent models leads researchers to use them for predicting hydrological phenomena more and more. Therefore, in this study, the Gene Expression Programming (GEP) and Support Vector Regression (SVR) models were used to model monthly precipitation of Nahavand City. In this study, precipitation, temperature, and relative humidity data were used in a 32-year period (from 1983 to 2014). The results showed that the same and good performance of both models (R2= 0.92), but according to different evaluation criteria, GEP model showed a little better performance (RMSE= 0.0478 and 0.0486), while the running GEP model is so easier than the SVM model. Totally, it can be said that GEP model had been suitable for modeling monthly precipitation of Varayeneh station in Nahavand City. Finally, the monthly precipitation was predicted the GEP which showed a decrease in precipitation in compared with previous months.