Determining equations for vegetation induced resistance using genetic programming

Abstract

Inducing equations based on theory and data is a time-honoured technique in science. This is usually done manually, based on theoretical understanding and previously established equations. In this work, for a particular problem in hydraulics, human induction of equations is compared with the use of genetic programming. It will be shown that even with the use of synthetic data for training, genetic programming was capable of identifying a relationship that was more concise and more accurate than the relationship uncovered by scientists. As such this is a human-competitive result. Furthermore it will be shown that the genetic programming induced expression could be embedded in a line of theoretical work, filling in a few gaps in an already established line of reasoning. The resulting equation is the most accurate and elegant formulation of vegetation induced resistance to date.