Data Distributions on Performance of Neural Networks for Two Year Peak Stream Discharges

The impact of the input and output probability distributions on the performance of neural networks to forecast two year peak stream flow (cubic meters per second) is examined for two major river basins of the US. The neural network input consisted of drainage area(square kilometers ) and elevation (meters). When data are normally distributed , the neural networks predict much better than when the data are non-normal and have larger tails in their distributions.