Applied Ocean Research 30 (2008) 241–242
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Applied Ocean Research
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/apor
Reply to: A discussion on ‘‘Application of neuro-fuzzy approach in
prediction of runup in swash zone’’ [Applied Ocean Research (2008)
doi:10.1016/j.apor.2008.02.004]
R. Bakhtyar a,b,∗ , A. Yeganeh Bakhtiary b , A. Ghaheri b
a
Institut des sciences et technologies de l’environnement, Ecole polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne, CH-1015 Lausanne, Switzerland
b
Civil Engineering Department, Iran University of Science & Technology, Narmak, Tehran, Iran
article info
Article history:
Received 28 September 2008
Accepted 28 September 2008
Available online 6 December 2008
Tarkan Erdik provides some comments on our paper [1].
He seems to have overlooked the main purpose of the paper
and appears to have expended considerable effort expounding
on trivial issues. In addition, Dr. Erdik repeats several points
readily available in textbooks or that are already contained in the
paper. However, the points raised by Dr. Erdik are useful since
our response may lead to further understanding for readers not
familiar with the substantial body of research on ANFIS and wave
runup in the swash zone. The following discussions follow the
order of Dr. Erdik’s comments.
Response to issue1. In our paper [1], the abilities of an
Adaptive-Neuro-Fuzzy Inference System (ANFIS) using subtractive
fuzzy clustering method, Fuzzy Inference System (FIS) and
existing empirical formulas are implemented for predicting and
modeling wave runup in the swash zone. There seems to be
a misunderstanding about basic fuzzy logic on Membership
Functions (MFs) in our paper. In basic fuzzy logic principles there
is no necessity for the MFs to reach 1 unless we present the normal
value of all MFs for a single value e.g. Iribarren number. To clarify
this point consider an example: we define linguistic rules for an
input variable, namely 6.99, to be equal to 4, 5, 6, and 7. Definitely
the MFs of 6.99 regarding these rules is exceeding 1. The MFs of
6.99 to be equal to 7 is very close to 1. Labeling MFs with linguistic
words is not a common practice with working with fuzzification in
ANFIS since it makes the figures very crowded and useless.
We found out the same comments have been made by Dr. Erdik
on the paper of ‘‘Prediction of mechanical properties of recycled
∗ Corresponding author at: Civil Engineering Department, Iran University of
Science & Technology, Narmak, Tehran, Iran. Tel.: +41 21 693 8086.
E-mail addresses: roham.bakhtyar@epfl.ch, Roham.bakhtyar@gmail.com
(R. Bakhtyar).
0141-1187/$ – see front matter © 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.apor.2008.10.002
aggregate concretes containing silica fume using artificial neural
networks and fuzzy logic [2]’’, which cannot be correct.
Response to issue2. This point indicates that the responder
could not understand our paper properly. Generally the idea of
the paper is to use FIS or ANFIS for estimation of wave runup
height in the swash zone. Wave runup in the swash zone is the
end product of numerous complex time- and space-dependent
interactions between fluid and bed. These interactions cannot
be resolved completely by deterministic models. In the past
few years, the fuzzy inference system has been employed in
the prediction of uncertain systems because its application does
not require knowledge of the underlying physical process as a
precondition. However, the application of the FIS with ANN to the
prediction of wave runup in the swash zone has not been tested.
Thus, using advanced data-mining techniques to explore relations
cannot (yet) be resolved by deterministic models. It is believed
the methodology and ANFIS formulation presented to solve the
problem approached is very important. Multifaceted problems
such as wave runup can be solved using the model developed.
Indeed an ANFIS style method jumping straight from Iribarren
number and slope angle to the runup height might be a good idea
since most of the intervening steps in existing models are ad hoc
and unverified. Moreover, we think solving the problem studied as
an application with the existing database does not imply that the
ANFIS method presented is less useful. This is why the proposed
ANFIS modeling approach outperforms the empirical formulas
in terms of prediction capability, and the adaptive-network FIS
approach is a viable tool for modeling the wave runup, especially
where no attempt exists in the literature in predicting the wave
runup by using the ANFIS or other soft computing methods. As
mentioned in the paper, data corresponding to milder slopes are
clustered reasonably well for values of Iribarren number below
about 2.5. At higher values of ζop (representing steeper slopes
242 R. Bakhtyar et al. / Applied Ocean Research 30 (2008) 241–242
and/or longer waves) scatter increases significantly. We wanted to
investigate the ability of ANFIS to simulate the different data sets
with different scattering. Furthermore, the existing experimental
studies and empirical relations predict wave runup for each
irregular wave data. Therefore, in this paper [1], we compare the
results of FIS and ANFIS schemes in the same conditions with the
results of other models.
Response to issue3. Though the simpler MF formulas, e.g., com-
posed of straight-line segments, have been used previously they
may be computational efficient but they are not differentiable. Us-
ing the Gaussian MFs leads to better and accurate precision for
two reasons. First, Gaussian MFs are differentiable and using those
makes smoothness in performing second derivatives and, second,
Gaussian MFs are well known in the fields of probability and statis-
tics, and are becoming increasingly popular methods.
Response to issue 4. This is a misprint: a typographical mistake
happened during converting the Word to PDF format, which the
authors unfortunately are not able to understand.
References
[1] Bakhtyar A, Yeganeh Bakhtiary A, Ghaheri A. Application of neuro-fuzzy
approach in prediction of runup in swash zone. Journal of Applied Ocean
Research 2008;30(1):17–27.
[2] Erdik T. Discussion on: Prediction of mechanical properties of recycled
aggregate concretes containing silica fume using artificial neural networks and
fuzzy logic. Computational Materials Science. 2008 [in press].