“…There has been a rapidly growing interest among water scientists to apply neural networks in water resources. Indeed, ANNs have been applied in forecasting long-term rainfall (Karamouz et al 2008, Mekanik et al 2013, forecasting sea level (Pashova and Popova 2011), forecasting floods (Tiwari and Chatterjee 2010), forecasting water quality (Robert et al 2008, Banerjee et al 2011, forecasting daily water demands (Bennett et al 2013), flow forecasting (Huo et al 2012, Kalteh 2013, Mohanty et al 2013, snowmelt-runoff forecasting (Yilmaz et al 2011), modelling rainfall-runoff processes (Tsung-yi and Wang 2004, Kisi 2008, Wu and Chau 2011, rainfall forecasting (Wu et al 2010), sediment transport prediction (Hamidi and Kayaalp 2008, Melesse et al 2011, Kisi et al 2012, Lafdani et al 2013, groundwater level forecasting (Krishna et al 2008, Nourani et al 2008) and determination of aquifer parameters (Samani et al 2007, Lin et al 2010.…”