Application of Fuzzy Logic in Water Resources Engineering: Fuzzy Logic in Developing Rainfall-Runoff Model

India is bestowed with rich water resources; rainfall is one of the main sources of water. Because of time and spatial variability of rainfall, a number of dams have been constructed all over the country to tap the available water resources so that this water can be utilized in accordance with the requirements of mankind. Proper management of the reservoirs is required for the efficient use of available water resources. Reservoir operation plays a vital role in planning and management of water resources system. Modeling of a rainfall-runoff is gaining a fast momentum for hydrological and water management studies. This evolution provides the mankind with new possibilities to efficiently use the available water. In this study rainfall-runoff model for three reservoirs, namely Ravishankar Sagar, Murumsilli and Dudhawa reservoirs of MRP Project has been developed, for the available data of 17 years, by the application of fuzzy logic. Fuzzified runoff results from the model are compared with linear regression by calculating the relative error with reference to the observed runoff. It has been found that fuzzy logic based rainfall-runoff model performs better than linear regression model

Ishtiyaq Ahmad has obtained his Masters degree in Water Resources Engineering in 2008. Since then he is working as a Lecturer in Civil Engineering. He is the author of a number of papers published in reputed journals and conference proceedings and is a member of different national and international associations.