Spatial sensitivity of river flooding to changes in climate and land cover through explainable AI
Explaining the spatially variable impacts of flood-generating mechanisms is a longstanding challenge in hydrology, with increasing and decreasing temporal flood trends often found in close regional proximity. Here, we develop a machine learning-informed approach to unravel the drivers of seasonal fl...
| Main Authors: | , , , , , , , , |
|---|---|
| Format: | Journal article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Wiley
2024
|
| _version_ | 1811140034496036864 |
|---|---|
| author | Slater, L Coxon, G Brunner, M McMillan, H Yu, L Zheng, Y Khouakhi, A Moulds, S Berghuijs, W |
| author_facet | Slater, L Coxon, G Brunner, M McMillan, H Yu, L Zheng, Y Khouakhi, A Moulds, S Berghuijs, W |
| author_sort | Slater, L |
| collection | OXFORD |
| description | Explaining the spatially variable impacts of flood-generating mechanisms is a longstanding challenge in hydrology, with increasing and decreasing temporal flood trends often found in close regional proximity. Here, we develop a machine learning-informed approach to unravel the drivers of seasonal flood magnitude and explain the spatial variability of their effects in a temperate climate. We employ 11 observed meteorological and land cover (LC) time series variables alongside 8 static catchment attributes to model flood magnitude in 1,268 catchments across Great Britain over four decades. We then perform a sensitivity analysis to assess how a 10% increase in precipitation, a 1°C rise in air temperature, or a 10 percentage point increase in urban or forest LC may affect flood magnitude in catchments with varying characteristics. Our simulations show that increasing precipitation and urbanization both tend to amplify flood magnitude significantly more in catchments with high baseflow contribution and low runoff ratio, which tend to have lower values of specific discharge on average. In contrast, rising air temperature (in the absence of changing precipitation) decreases flood magnitudes, with the largest effects in dry catchments with low baseflow index. Afforestation also tends to decrease floods more in catchments with low groundwater contribution, and in dry catchments in the summer. Our approach may be used to further disentangle the joint effects of multiple flood drivers in individual catchments. |
| first_indexed | 2024-09-25T04:15:34Z |
| format | Journal article |
| id | oxford-uuid:78d39da5-7475-449d-9ff8-1be0b12be7e1 |
| institution | University of Oxford |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-09-25T04:15:34Z |
| publishDate | 2024 |
| publisher | Wiley |
| record_format | dspace |
| spelling | oxford-uuid:78d39da5-7475-449d-9ff8-1be0b12be7e12024-07-20T14:29:07ZSpatial sensitivity of river flooding to changes in climate and land cover through explainable AIJournal articlehttp://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_dcae04bcuuid:78d39da5-7475-449d-9ff8-1be0b12be7e1EnglishSymplectic ElementsWiley2024Slater, LCoxon, GBrunner, MMcMillan, HYu, LZheng, YKhouakhi, AMoulds, SBerghuijs, WExplaining the spatially variable impacts of flood-generating mechanisms is a longstanding challenge in hydrology, with increasing and decreasing temporal flood trends often found in close regional proximity. Here, we develop a machine learning-informed approach to unravel the drivers of seasonal flood magnitude and explain the spatial variability of their effects in a temperate climate. We employ 11 observed meteorological and land cover (LC) time series variables alongside 8 static catchment attributes to model flood magnitude in 1,268 catchments across Great Britain over four decades. We then perform a sensitivity analysis to assess how a 10% increase in precipitation, a 1°C rise in air temperature, or a 10 percentage point increase in urban or forest LC may affect flood magnitude in catchments with varying characteristics. Our simulations show that increasing precipitation and urbanization both tend to amplify flood magnitude significantly more in catchments with high baseflow contribution and low runoff ratio, which tend to have lower values of specific discharge on average. In contrast, rising air temperature (in the absence of changing precipitation) decreases flood magnitudes, with the largest effects in dry catchments with low baseflow index. Afforestation also tends to decrease floods more in catchments with low groundwater contribution, and in dry catchments in the summer. Our approach may be used to further disentangle the joint effects of multiple flood drivers in individual catchments. |
| spellingShingle | Slater, L Coxon, G Brunner, M McMillan, H Yu, L Zheng, Y Khouakhi, A Moulds, S Berghuijs, W Spatial sensitivity of river flooding to changes in climate and land cover through explainable AI |
| title | Spatial sensitivity of river flooding to changes in climate and land cover through explainable AI |
| title_full | Spatial sensitivity of river flooding to changes in climate and land cover through explainable AI |
| title_fullStr | Spatial sensitivity of river flooding to changes in climate and land cover through explainable AI |
| title_full_unstemmed | Spatial sensitivity of river flooding to changes in climate and land cover through explainable AI |
| title_short | Spatial sensitivity of river flooding to changes in climate and land cover through explainable AI |
| title_sort | spatial sensitivity of river flooding to changes in climate and land cover through explainable ai |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT slaterl spatialsensitivityofriverfloodingtochangesinclimateandlandcoverthroughexplainableai AT coxong spatialsensitivityofriverfloodingtochangesinclimateandlandcoverthroughexplainableai AT brunnerm spatialsensitivityofriverfloodingtochangesinclimateandlandcoverthroughexplainableai AT mcmillanh spatialsensitivityofriverfloodingtochangesinclimateandlandcoverthroughexplainableai AT yul spatialsensitivityofriverfloodingtochangesinclimateandlandcoverthroughexplainableai AT zhengy spatialsensitivityofriverfloodingtochangesinclimateandlandcoverthroughexplainableai AT khouakhia spatialsensitivityofriverfloodingtochangesinclimateandlandcoverthroughexplainableai AT mouldss spatialsensitivityofriverfloodingtochangesinclimateandlandcoverthroughexplainableai AT berghuijsw spatialsensitivityofriverfloodingtochangesinclimateandlandcoverthroughexplainableai |