COMPARISON AND EVALUATION OF MACHINE-LEARNING-BASED SPATIAL DOWNSCALING APPROACHES ON SATELLITE-DERIVED PRECIPITATION DATA

Precipitation estimation with high accuracy and resolution is crucial for hydrological and meteorological applications, particularly in ungauged river basins and regions with scarce water resources. Many machine learning (ML) algorithms have been employed in the downscaling of precipitation, however...

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Main Authors: H. Zhu, Q. Zhou, A. Cui
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Copernicus Publications 2023-12-01
Series:ISPRS Annals of the Photogrammetry, Remote Sensing and Spatial Information Sciences
Online Access:https://isprs-annals.copernicus.org/articles/X-1-W1-2023/919/2023/isprs-annals-X-1-W1-2023-919-2023.pdf
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author H. Zhu
Q. Zhou
A. Cui
author_facet H. Zhu
Q. Zhou
A. Cui
author_sort H. Zhu
collection DOAJ
description Precipitation estimation with high accuracy and resolution is crucial for hydrological and meteorological applications, particularly in ungauged river basins and regions with scarce water resources. Many machine learning (ML) algorithms have been employed in the downscaling of precipitation, however, it remains unclear which algorithm can outperform others. To address this issue, this study evaluates the performance of four ML based downscaling methods to generate high-resolution precipitation estimates at an annual scale. The satellite-derived precipitation data, environmental variables, such as, latitude, longitude, normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI), digital elevation model (DEM), and land surface temperature (LST), as well as the observations from rainfall gauges were used to constructed the regression models. The performance of the four ML algorithms including the Support Vector Regression (SVR), Random Forest (RF), Spatial Random Forest (SRF), and Extreme Gradient Boosting (XGBoost) algorithms was compared with three conventional methods: Multiple Linear Regression (MLR), geographically weighted regression (GWR) and Kriging interpolation model. Results showed that ML-based method generally outperformed traditional interpolation methods in precipitation downscaling, as they had higher accuracy and were better at reproducing the spatial distribution of rainfall. Out of ML approaches, XGBoost received the best performance, followed by SRF, RF and SVR, indicating its robustness of capturing nonlinear relationships. After the XGBoost, better performance of SRF than RF and SVR was found. This might be because the SRF just introduced the spatial autocorrelation into the RF models, which illustrated the importance of capturing spatial variations in ML algorithms. These findings regarding the comparison and assessment provided a novel downscaling method for generating high-resolution precipitation data, which could benefit regional flood forecasting, drought monitoring, and irrigation planning.
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spelling doaj.art-f68ad086c5ab4ef289fd9d37bf80433c2023-12-06T04:38:09ZengCopernicus PublicationsISPRS Annals of the Photogrammetry, Remote Sensing and Spatial Information Sciences2194-90422194-90502023-12-01X-1-W1-202391992410.5194/isprs-annals-X-1-W1-2023-919-2023COMPARISON AND EVALUATION OF MACHINE-LEARNING-BASED SPATIAL DOWNSCALING APPROACHES ON SATELLITE-DERIVED PRECIPITATION DATAH. Zhu0Q. Zhou1A. Cui2Department of Geography, Hong Kong Baptist University, Hong Kong, ChinaDepartment of Geography, Hong Kong Baptist University, Hong Kong, ChinaDepartment of Geography, Hong Kong Baptist University, Hong Kong, ChinaPrecipitation estimation with high accuracy and resolution is crucial for hydrological and meteorological applications, particularly in ungauged river basins and regions with scarce water resources. Many machine learning (ML) algorithms have been employed in the downscaling of precipitation, however, it remains unclear which algorithm can outperform others. To address this issue, this study evaluates the performance of four ML based downscaling methods to generate high-resolution precipitation estimates at an annual scale. The satellite-derived precipitation data, environmental variables, such as, latitude, longitude, normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI), digital elevation model (DEM), and land surface temperature (LST), as well as the observations from rainfall gauges were used to constructed the regression models. The performance of the four ML algorithms including the Support Vector Regression (SVR), Random Forest (RF), Spatial Random Forest (SRF), and Extreme Gradient Boosting (XGBoost) algorithms was compared with three conventional methods: Multiple Linear Regression (MLR), geographically weighted regression (GWR) and Kriging interpolation model. Results showed that ML-based method generally outperformed traditional interpolation methods in precipitation downscaling, as they had higher accuracy and were better at reproducing the spatial distribution of rainfall. Out of ML approaches, XGBoost received the best performance, followed by SRF, RF and SVR, indicating its robustness of capturing nonlinear relationships. After the XGBoost, better performance of SRF than RF and SVR was found. This might be because the SRF just introduced the spatial autocorrelation into the RF models, which illustrated the importance of capturing spatial variations in ML algorithms. These findings regarding the comparison and assessment provided a novel downscaling method for generating high-resolution precipitation data, which could benefit regional flood forecasting, drought monitoring, and irrigation planning.https://isprs-annals.copernicus.org/articles/X-1-W1-2023/919/2023/isprs-annals-X-1-W1-2023-919-2023.pdf
spellingShingle H. Zhu
Q. Zhou
A. Cui
COMPARISON AND EVALUATION OF MACHINE-LEARNING-BASED SPATIAL DOWNSCALING APPROACHES ON SATELLITE-DERIVED PRECIPITATION DATA
ISPRS Annals of the Photogrammetry, Remote Sensing and Spatial Information Sciences
title COMPARISON AND EVALUATION OF MACHINE-LEARNING-BASED SPATIAL DOWNSCALING APPROACHES ON SATELLITE-DERIVED PRECIPITATION DATA
title_full COMPARISON AND EVALUATION OF MACHINE-LEARNING-BASED SPATIAL DOWNSCALING APPROACHES ON SATELLITE-DERIVED PRECIPITATION DATA
title_fullStr COMPARISON AND EVALUATION OF MACHINE-LEARNING-BASED SPATIAL DOWNSCALING APPROACHES ON SATELLITE-DERIVED PRECIPITATION DATA
title_full_unstemmed COMPARISON AND EVALUATION OF MACHINE-LEARNING-BASED SPATIAL DOWNSCALING APPROACHES ON SATELLITE-DERIVED PRECIPITATION DATA
title_short COMPARISON AND EVALUATION OF MACHINE-LEARNING-BASED SPATIAL DOWNSCALING APPROACHES ON SATELLITE-DERIVED PRECIPITATION DATA
title_sort comparison and evaluation of machine learning based spatial downscaling approaches on satellite derived precipitation data
url https://isprs-annals.copernicus.org/articles/X-1-W1-2023/919/2023/isprs-annals-X-1-W1-2023-919-2023.pdf
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AT qzhou comparisonandevaluationofmachinelearningbasedspatialdownscalingapproachesonsatellitederivedprecipitationdata
AT acui comparisonandevaluationofmachinelearningbasedspatialdownscalingapproachesonsatellitederivedprecipitationdata