Wavelet and ANN combination model for prediction of daily suspended sediment load in rivers

► A new wavelet artificial neural network (WANN) model was proposed for daily suspended sediment load (SSL) prediction. ► Daily observed time series of river discharge and SSL in Yadkin River in the USA were decomposed to some sub-time series at different levels by wavelet analysis. ► Then, these sub-time series were imposed to the artificial neural network (ANN). ► The proposed model was compared with ANN and conventional models. ► The WANN model could satisfactorily simulate hysteresis phenomenon and reasonably predict high SSL values.