ORIGINAL RESEARCH
Applying Artificial Neural Networks
for the Estimation of Chlorophyll-a
Concentrations along the Istanbul Coast
Ruya Samli1, Nuket Sivri2, Selcuk Sevgen1, Vildan Zulal Kiremitci2
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1Computer Engineering Department,
2Environmental Engineering Department,
Engineering Faculty, Istanbul University, 34320, Avcilar, Istanbul, Turkey
Pol. J. Environ. Stud. 2014;23(4):1281-1287
KEYWORDS
ABSTRACT
Chlorophyll-a (chl-a) concentration is considered to be the main measure of phytoplankton biomass.
The location and intensity of the surface chl-a maximum in a coastal area are governed by daylight hours, air
and seawater temperatures, and nutrient availability in the euphotic zone. The aim of this study is to model a
back-propagation neural network (BP-ANN) for estimating chlorophyll-a concentrations from obtained input
values. In this study an ANN structure of 3 input neurons and 1 output neuron is used. The 3 inputs represent
sea surface temperature (SST), air temperature, and daylight hours, while the output represents chl-a concentration
respectively and hidden layers number which is dependent to the application is determined as 20. The
ANN structure, which is simulated in MATLAB, estimated the data of the experiments. When compared to
current data, it can be said that these are successful results and they provide ANN for estimating chl-a. In our
ANN approach, the effects of all input/output parameters can be evaluated and various outputs can be obtained
for different environments and predicted maximum chl-a data.