Neural network modelling of the 20-year flood event for catchments across the UK

Limited use has been made of artificial neural networks for regionalisation purposes or for flood event estimation in ungauged catchments. This paper uses data from the Centre for Ecology and Hydrology´s Flood Estimation Handbook to predict the 20-year flood event for 850 catchments across the UK. Neural network solutions and stepwise multiple linear regressions are compared. The neural network solutions provided superior flood event predictions and their use for subsequent hydrological modelling and flood engineering applications is recommended.