Land subsidence susceptibility mapping: a new approach to improve decision stump classification (DSC) performance and combine it with four machine learning algorithms.

Land subsidence is a worldwide threat. In arid and semiarid lands, groundwater depletion is the main factor that induce the subsidence resulting in environmental damages and socio-economic issues. To foresee and prevent the impact of land subsidence, it is necessary to develop accurate maps of the magnitude and evolution of the subsidences. Land subsidence susceptibility maps (LSSMs) provide one of the effective tools to manage vulnerable areas and to reduce or prevent land subsidence. In this study, we used a new approach to improve decision stump classification (DSC) performance and combine it with machine learning algorithms (MLAs) of naïve Bayes tree (NBTree), J48 decision tree, alternating decision tree (ADTree), logistic model tree (LMT), and support vector machine (SVM) in land subsidence susceptibility mapping (LSSSM). We employ data from 94 subsidence locations, among which 70% were used to train learning hybrid models and the other 30% were used for validation. In addition, the models' performance was assessed by ROC-AUC, accuracy, sensitivity, specificity, odd ratio, root-mean-square error (RMSE), kappa, frequency ratio, and F-score techniques. A comparison of the results obtained from the different models reveals that the new DSC-ADTree hybrid algorithm has the highest accuracy (AUC = 0.983) in preparing LSSSMs as compared to other learning models such as DSC-J48 (AUC = 0.976), DSC-NBTree (AUC = 0.959), DSC-LMT (AUC = 0.948), DSC-SVM (AUC = 0.939), and DSC (AUC = 0.911). The LSSSMs generated through the novel scientific approach presented in our study provide reliable tools for managing and reducing the risk of land subsidence.

A review of recent advances and future prospects in calculation of reference evapotranspiration in Bangladesh using soft computing models.

Evapotranspiration (ETo) is a complex and non-linear hydrological process with a significant impact on efficient water resource planning and long-term management. The Penman-Monteith (PM) equation method, developed by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), represents an advancement over earlier approaches for estimating ETo. Eto though reliable, faces limitations due to the requirement for climatological data not always available at specific locations. To address this, researchers have explored soft computing (SC) models as alternatives to conventional methods, known for their exceptional accuracy across disciplines. This critical review aims to enhance understanding of cutting-edge SC frameworks for ETo estimation, highlighting advancements in evolutionary models, hybrid and ensemble approaches, and optimization strategies. Recent applications of SC in various climatic zones in Bangladesh are evaluated, with the order of preference being ANFIS > Bi-LSTM > RT > DENFIS > SVR-PSOGWO > PSO-HFS due to their consistently high accuracy (RMSE and R2). This review introduces a benchmark for incorporating evolutionary computation algorithms (EC) into ETo modeling. Each subsection addresses the strengths and weaknesses of known SC models, offering valuable insights. The review serves as a valuable resource for experienced water resource engineers and hydrologists, both domestically and internationally, providing comprehensive SC modeling studies for ETo forecasting. Furthermore, it provides an improved water resources monitoring and management plans.

Flood hazard potential evaluation using decision tree state-of-the-art models.

Floods occur frequently in Romania and throughout the world and are one of the most devastating natural disasters that impact people's lives. Therefore, in order to reduce the potential damages, an accurate identification of surfaces susceptible to flood phenomena is mandatory. In this regard, the quantitative calculation of flood susceptibility has become a very popular practice in the scientific research. With the development of modern computerized methods such as geographic information system and machine learning models, and as a result of the possibility of combining them, the determination of areas susceptible to floods has become increasingly accurate, and the algorithms used are increasingly varied. Some of the most used and highly accurate machine learning algorithms are the decision tree models. Therefore, in the present study focusing on flood susceptibility zonation mapping in the Trotus River basin, the following algorithms were applied: forest by penalizing attribute-weights of evidence (forest-PA-WOE), best first decision tree-WOE, alternating decision tree-WOE, and logistic regression-WOE. The best performant, characterized by a maximum accuracy of 0.981, proved to be forest-PA-WOE, whereas in terms of flood exposure, an area of over 16.22% of the Trotus basin is exposed to high and very high floods susceptibility. The performances applied models in the present work are higher than the models applied in the previous studies in the same study area. Moreover, it should be noted that the accuracy of the models is similar with the accuracies of the decision tree models achieved in the studies focused on other areas across the world. Therefore, we can state that the models applied in the present research can be successfully used in by the researchers in other case studies. The findings of this research may substantially map the flood risk areas and further aid watershed managers in limiting and remediating flood damage in the data-scarce regions. Moreover, the results of this study can be a very useful for the hazard management and planning authorities.

Spatio-temporal assessment of water quality of a tropical decaying river in India for drinking purposes and human health risk characterization.

River water pollution and water-related health problems are common issues across the world. The present study aims to examine the Jalangi River's water quality to assess its suitability for drinking purposes and associated human health risks. The 34 water samples were collected from the source to the mouth of Jalangi River in 2022 to depict the spatial dynamics while another 119 water samples (2012-2022) were collected from a secondary source to portray the seasonal dynamics. Results indicate better water quality in the lower reach of the river in the monsoon and post-monsoon seasons. Principal component analysis reveals that K+, NO3-, and total alkalinity (TA) play a dominant role in controlling the water quality of the study region, while, CaCO3, Ca2+, and EC in the pre-monsoon, EC, TDS, Na+, and TA in the monsoon, and EC, TDS and TA in the post-monsoon controlled the water quality. The results of ANOVA reveal that BOD, Ca2+, and CaCO3 concentrations in water have significant spatial dynamics, whereas pH, BOD, DO, Cl-, SO42-, Na+, Mg2+, Ca2+, CaCO3, TDS, TA, and EC have seasonal dynamics (p < 0.05). The water quality index depicts that the Jalangi River's water quality ranged from 6.23 to 140.83, i.e., excellent to unsuitable for drinking purposes. Human health risk analysis shows that 32.35% of water samples have non-carcinogenic health risks for all three groups of people, i.e., adults, children, and infants while only 5.88% of water samples have carcinogenic health risks for adults and children. The gradual decay of the Jalangi River coupled with the disposal of urban and agricultural effluents induces river pollution that calls for substantial attention from the various stakeholders to restore the water quality.

Land subsidence susceptibility mapping: comparative assessment of the efficacy of the five models.

Land subsidence (LS) as a major geological and hydrological hazard poses a major threat to safety and security. The various triggers of LS include intense extraction of aquifer bodies. In this study, we present an LS inventory map of the Daumeghan plain of Iran using 123 LS and 123 non-LS locations which were identified through field survey. Fourteen LS causative factors related to topography, geology, hydrology, and anthropogenic characteristics were selected based on multi-collinearity test. Based on the results, five susceptibility maps were generated employing models and input data. The LS susceptibility models were evaluated and validated using the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve and statistical indices. The results indicate that the LS susceptibility maps produced have good accuracy in predicting the spatial distribution of LS in the study area. The result showed that the optimization models BA and GWO were better than the other machine learning algorithm (MLA). In addition, The BA model has 96.6% area under of ROC (AUROC) followed by GWO (95.8%), BART (94.5%), BRT (93.1%), and SVR (92.7%). The LS susceptibility maps formulated in our study can serve as a useful tool for formulating mitigation strategies and for better land-use planning.

Retraction Note: Weather indicators and improving air quality in association with COVID-19 pandemic in India.

[This retracts the article DOI: 10.1007/s00500-021-06012-9.].

Optimizing machine learning algorithms for spatial prediction of gully erosion susceptibility with four training scenarios.

Gully erosion causes high soil erosion rates and is an environmental concern posing major risk to the sustainability of cultivated areas of the world. Gullies modify the land, shape new landforms, and damage agricultural fields. Gully erosion mapping is essential to understand the mechanism, development, and evolution of gullies. In this work, a new modeling approach was employed for gully erosion susceptibility mapping (GESM) in the Golestan Dam basin of Iran. The measurements of 14 gully erosion (GE) factors at 1042 GE locations were compiled in a spatial database. Four training datasets comprised of 100%, 75%, 50%, and 25% of the entire database were used for modeling and validation (for each data set in the common 70:30 ratio). Four machine learning models-maximum entropy (MaxEnt), general linear model (GLM), support vector machine (SVM), and artificial neural network (ANN)- were employed to check the usefulness of the four training scenarios. The results of random forest (RF) analysis indicated that the most important GE effective factors were distance from the stream, elevation, distance from the road, and vertical distance of the channel network (VDCN). The receiver operating characteristic (ROC) was used to validate the results. Our study showed that the sample size influenced the performance of the four machine learning algorithms. However, the ANN had a lower sensitivity to the reduction of sample size. In addition, validation results revealed that ANN (AUROC = 0.85.7-0.90.4%) had the best performance based on all four sample data sets. The results of this research can be useful and valuable guidelines for choosing machine learning methods when a complete gully inventory is not available in a region.

Weather indicators and improving air quality in association with COVID-19 pandemic in India.

The COVID-19 pandemic enforced nationwide lockdown, which has restricted human activities from March 24 to May 3, 2020, resulted in an improved air quality across India. The present research investigates the connection between COVID-19 pandemic-imposed lockdown and its relation to the present air quality in India; besides, relationship between climate variables and daily new affected cases of Coronavirus and mortality in India during the this period has also been examined. The selected seven air quality pollutant parameters (PM10, PM2.5, CO, NO2, SO2, NH3, and O3) at 223 monitoring stations and temperature recorded in New Delhi were used to investigate the spatial pattern of air quality throughout the lockdown. The results showed that the air quality has improved across the country and average temperature and maximum temperature were connected to the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic. This outcomes indicates that there is no such relation between climatic parameters and outbreak and its associated mortality. This study will assist the policy maker, researcher, urban planner, and health expert to make suitable strategies against the spreading of COVID-19 in India and abroad. Supplementary Information: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s00500-021-06012-9.

Flood vulnerability of a few areas in the foothills of the Western Ghats: a comparison of AHP and F-AHP models.

Flooding is one of the most destructive natural catastrophes that can strike anywhere in the world. With the recent, but frequent catastrophic flood events that occurred in the narrow stretch of land in southern India, sandwiched between the Western Ghats and the Arabian Sea, this study was initiated. The goal of this research is to identify flood-vulnerable zones in this area by making the local self governing bodies as the mapping unit. This study also assessed the predictive accuracy of analytical hierarchy process (AHP) and fuzzy-analytical hierarchy process (F-AHP) models. A total of 20 indicators (nine physical-environmental variables and 11 socio-economic variables) have been considered for the vulnerability modelling. Flood-vulnerability maps, created using remotely sensed satellite data and geographic information systems, was divided into five zones. AHP and F-AHP flood vulnerability models identified 12.29% and 11.81% of the area as very high-vulnerable zones, respectively. The receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve is used to validate these flood vulnerability maps. The flood vulnerable maps, created using the AHP and F-AHP methods, were found to be outstanding based on the area under the ROC curve (AUC) values. This demonstrates the effectiveness of these two models. The results of AUC for the AHP and F-AHP models were 0.946 and 0.943, respectively, articulating that the AHP model is more efficient than its chosen counterpart in demarcating the flood vulnerable zones. Decision-makers and land-use planners will find the generated vulnerable zone maps useful, particularly in implementing flood mitigation plans.

Flood susceptibility evaluation through deep learning optimizer ensembles and GIS techniques.

It is difficult to predict and model with an accurate model the floods, that are one of the most destructive risks across the earth's surface. The main objective of this research is to show the prediction power of three ensemble algorithms with respect to flood susceptibility estimation. These algorithms are: Iterative Classifier Optimizer - Alternating Decision Tree - Frequency Ratio (ICO-ADT-FR), Iterative Classifier Optimizer - Deep Learning Neural Network - Frequency Ratio (ICO-DLNN-FR) and Iterative Classifier Optimizer - Multilayer Perceptron - Frequency Ratio (ICO-MLP-FR). The first stage of the manuscript consisted of the collection and processing of the geodatabase needed in the present study. The geodatabase comprises a number of 14 flood predictors and 132 known flood locations. The Correlation-based Feature Selection (CFS) method was used in order to assess the prediction capacity of the 14 predictors in terms of flood susceptibility estimation. The training and validation of the three ensemble models constitute the next stage of the scientific workflow. Several statistical metrics and ROC curve method were involved in the evaluation of the model's performance and accuracy. According to ROC curves all the models achieved high performances since their AUC had values above 0.89. ICO-DLNN-FR proved to be the most accurate model (AUC = 0.959). The outcomes of the study can be used to guide future flood risk management and sustainable land-use planning in the designated area.

Have any effect of COVID-19 lockdown on environmental sustainability? A study from most polluted metropolitan area of India.

The long-term lockdown due to COVID-19 has beneficial impact on the natural environment. India has enforced a lockdown on 24th March 2020 and was subsequently extended in various phases. The lockdown due to the sudden spurt of the COVID-19 pandemic has shown a significant decline in concentration of air pollutants across India. The present article dealt with scenarios of air quality concentration of air pollutants, and effect on climatic variability during the COVID-19 lockdown period in Kolkata Metropolitan Area, India. The result showed that the air pollutants are significantly reduced and the air quality index (AQI) was improved during the lockdown months. Aerosol concentrations decreased by - 54.94% from the period of pre-lockdown. The major air pollutants like particulate matters (PM2.5, PM10), sulphur dioxide (SO2), carbon monoxide (CO) and Ozone (O3) were observed the maximum reduction ( - 40 to - 60%) in the COVID-19 lockdown period. The AQI has been improved by 54.94% in the lockdown period. On the other hand, Sen's slope rank and the Mann-Kendal trend test showed the daily decreased of air pollutants rate is - 0.051 to - 1.586 µg /m3. The increasing trend of daily minimum, average, and maximum temperature from the month of March to May in this year (2020s) are 0.091, 0.118, and 0.106 °C which is lowest than the 2016s to 2019s trend. Therefore, this research has an enormous opportunity to explain the effects of the lockdown on air quality and climate variability, and it can also be helpful for policymakers and decision-makers to enact appropriate measures to control air pollution.

Optimization modelling to establish false measures implemented with ex-situ plant species to control gully erosion in a monsoon-dominated region with novel in-situ measurements.

Water dominated gullies formation and associated land degradation are the foremost challenges among the planners for sustainability and optimization of land resources. This type of hazardous phenomenon is utmost vulnerable due to huge loss of surface soil in the sub-tropical developing countries like India. The present study has been carried out in rugged badland topography of Garhbeta-I Community Development (C.D.) Block in eastern India for assessing the gully erosion susceptibility (GES) mapping and optimization of land use planning. The GES mapping is the first and foremost steps towards minimization this adverse affect and attaining sustainable development. In this study we also describe the importance of plantation and alternation of ex-situ tree species with in-situ species for minimizes the erosional activity. To meet our research goal here we used two prediction based machine learning algorithm (MLA) namely random forest (RF) and boosted regression tree (BRT) and one optimization model of Ecogeography based optimization (EBO). The research study also carried out by using a total of 199, in which 139 (70%) and 60 (30%) gully head-cut points were used for training and validation purposes respectively and treated as dependent factors, and twenty gully erosion conditioning factors as independent variables. These models are validated through receiver operating characteristics-area under the curve (ROC-AUC), accuracy (ACC), precision (PRE) and Kappa coefficient index analysis. The validation result showed that EBO model with the highest values of AUC-0.954, ACC-0.85, PRE-0.877 and Kappa-0.646 is the most accurate model for GES followed by BRT and RF. The outcome results should help for the sustainable development of this rugged badland topography.

Credal decision tree based novel ensemble models for spatial assessment of gully erosion and sustainable management.

We introduce novel hybrid ensemble models in gully erosion susceptibility mapping (GESM) through a case study in the Bastam sedimentary plain of Northern Iran. Four new ensemble models including credal decision tree-bagging (CDT-BA), credal decision tree-dagging (CDT-DA), credal decision tree-rotation forest (CDT-RF), and credal decision tree-alternative decision tree (CDT-ADTree) are employed for mapping the gully erosion susceptibility (GES) with the help of 14 predictor factors and 293 gully locations. The relative significance of GECFs in modelling GES is assessed by random forest algorithm. Two cut-off-independent (area under success rate curve and area under predictor rate curve) and six cut-off-dependent metrics (accuracy, sensitivity, specificity, F-score, odd ratio and Cohen Kappa) were utilized based on both calibration as well as testing dataset. Drainage density, distance to road, rainfall and NDVI were found to be the most influencing predictor variables for GESM. The CDT-RF (AUSRC = 0.942, AUPRC = 0.945, accuracy = 0.869, specificity = 0.875, sensitivity = 0.864, RMSE = 0.488, F-score = 0.869 and Cohen's Kappa = 0.305) was found to be the most robust model which showcased outstanding predictive accuracy in mapping GES. Our study shows that the GESM can be utilized for conserving soil resources and for controlling future gully erosion.

Comparison of multi-criteria and artificial intelligence models for land-subsidence susceptibility zonation.

Land subsidence (LS) in arid and semi-arid areas, such as Iran, is a significant threat to sustainable land management. The purpose of this study is to predict the LS distribution by generating land subsidence susceptibility models (LSSMs) for the Shahroud plain in Iran using three different multi-criteria decision making (MCDM) and five different artificial intelligence (AI) models. The MCDM models we used are the VlseKriterijumska Optimizacija IKompromisno Resenje (VIKOR), Technique for Order of Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution (TOPSIS) and Complex Proportional Assessment (COPRAS), and the AI models are the extreme gradient boosting (XGBoost), Cubist, Elasticnet, Bayesian multivariate adaptive regression spline (BMARS) and conditional random forest (Cforest) methods. We used the Receiver Operating Characteristic (ROC) curve, Area Under Curve (AUC) and different statistical indices,i.e. accuracy, sensitivity, specificity, F score, Kappa, Mean Absolute Error (MAE) and Nash-Sutcliffe Criteria (NSC)to validate and evaluate the methods. Based on the different validation techniques, the Cforest method yielded the best results with minimum and maximum values of 0.04 and 0.99, respectively. According to the Cforest model, 30.55% of the study area is extremely vulnerable to land subsidence. The results of our research will be of great help to planners and policy makers in the identification of the most vulnerable regions and the implementation of appropriate development strategies in this area.

Flash-Flood Potential Mapping Using Deep Learning, Alternating Decision Trees and Data Provided by Remote Sensing Sensors.

There is an evident increase in the importance that remote sensing sensors play in the monitoring and evaluation of natural hazards susceptibility and risk. The present study aims to assess the flash-flood potential values, in a small catchment from Romania, using information provided remote sensing sensors and Geographic Informational Systems (GIS) databases which were involved as input data into a number of four ensemble models. In a first phase, with the help of high-resolution satellite images from the Google Earth application, 481 points affected by torrential processes were acquired, another 481 points being randomly positioned in areas without torrential processes. Seventy percent of the dataset was kept as training data, while the other 30% was assigned to validating sample. Further, in order to train the machine learning models, information regarding the 10 flash-flood predictors was extracted in the training sample locations. Finally, the following four ensembles were used to calculate the Flash-Flood Potential Index across the Bâsca Chiojdului river basin: Deep Learning Neural Network-Frequency Ratio (DLNN-FR), Deep Learning Neural Network-Weights of Evidence (DLNN-WOE), Alternating Decision Trees-Frequency Ratio (ADT-FR) and Alternating Decision Trees-Weights of Evidence (ADT-WOE). The model's performances were assessed using several statistical metrics. Thus, in terms of Sensitivity, the highest value of 0.985 was achieved by the DLNN-FR model, meanwhile the lowest one (0.866) was assigned to ADT-FR ensemble. Moreover, the specificity analysis shows that the highest value (0.991) was attributed to DLNN-WOE algorithm, while the lowest value (0.892) was achieved by ADT-FR. During the training procedure, the models achieved overall accuracies between 0.878 (ADT-FR) and 0.985 (DLNN-WOE). K-index shows again that the most performant model was DLNN-WOE (0.97). The Flash-Flood Potential Index (FFPI) values revealed that the surfaces with high and very high flash-flood susceptibility cover between 46.57% (DLNN-FR) and 59.38% (ADT-FR) of the study zone. The use of the Receiver Operating Characteristic (ROC) curve for results validation highlights the fact that FFPIDLNN-WOE is characterized by the most precise results with an Area Under Curve of 0.96.

Prediction of landslide susceptibility in Rudraprayag, India using novel ensemble of conditional probability and boosted regression tree-based on cross-validation method.

The present research examines the landslide susceptibility in Rudraprayag district of Uttarakhand, India using the conditional probability (CP) statistical technique, the boost regression tree (BRT) machine learning algorithm, and the CP-BRT ensemble approach to improve the accuracy of the BRT model. Using the four fold of data, the models' outcomes were cross-checked. The locations of existing landslides were detected by general field surveys and relevant records. 220 previous landslide locations were obtained, presented as an inventory map, and divided into four folds to calibrate and authenticate the models. For modelling the landslide susceptibility, twelve LCFs (landslide conditioning factors) were used. Two statistical methods, i.e. the mean absolute error (MAE) and the root mean square error (RMSE), one statistical test, i.e. the Freidman rank test, as well as the receiver operating characteristic (ROC), efficiency and precision were used for authenticating the produced landslide models. The results of the accuracy measures revealed that all models have good potential to recognize the landslide susceptibility in the Garhwal Himalayan region. Among these models, the ensemble model achieved a higher accuracy (precision: 0.829, efficiency: 0.833, AUC: 89.460, RMSE: 0.069 and MAE: 0.141) than the individual models. According to the outcome of the ensemble simulations, the BRT model's predictive accuracy was enhanced by integrating it with the statistical model (CP). The study showed that the areas of fallow land, plantation fields, and roadsides with elevations of more than 1500 m. with steep slopes of 24° to 87° and eroding hills are highly susceptible to landslides. The findings of this work could help in minimizing the landslides' risk in the Western Himalaya and its adjoining areas with similar landscapes and geological characteristics.

Optimization of state-of-the-art fuzzy-metaheuristic ANFIS-based machine learning models for flood susceptibility prediction mapping in the Middle Ganga Plain, India.

This study is an attempt to quantitatively test and compare novel advanced-machine learning algorithms in terms of their performance in achieving the goal of predicting flood susceptible areas in a low altitudinal range, sub-tropical floodplain environmental setting, like that prevailing in the Middle Ganga Plain (MGP), India. This part of the Ganga floodplain region, which under the influence of undergoing active tectonic regime related subsidence, is the hotbed of annual flood disaster. This makes the region one of the best natural laboratories to test the flood susceptibility models for establishing a universalization of such models in low relief highly flood prone areas. Based on highly sophisticated flood inventory archived for this region, and 12 flood conditioning factors viz. annual rainfall, soil type, stream density, distance from stream, distance from road, Topographic Wetness Index (TWI), altitude, slope aspect, slope, curvature, land use/land cover, and geomorphology, an advanced novel hybrid model Adaptive Neuro Fuzzy Inference System (ANFIS), and three metaheuristic models-based ensembles with ANFIS namely ANFIS-GA (Genetic Algorithm), ANFIS-DE (Differential Evolution), and ANFIS-PSO (Particle Swarm Optimization), have been applied for zonation of the flood susceptible areas. The flood inventory dataset, prepared by collected flood samples, were apportioned into 70:30 classes to prepare training and validation datasets. One independent validation method, the Area-Under Receiver Operating Characteristic (AUROC) Curve, and other 11 cut-off-dependent model evaluation metrices have helped to conclude that the ANIFS-GA has outperformed other three models with highest success rate AUC = 0.922 and prediction rate AUC = 0.924. The accuracy was also found to be highest for ANFIS-GA during training (0.886) & validation (0.883). Better performance of ANIFS-GA than the individual models as well as some ensemble models suggests and warrants further study in this topoclimatic environment using other classes of susceptibility models. This will further help establishing a benchmark model with capability of highest accuracy and sensitivity performance in the similar topographic and climatic setting taking assumption of the quality of input parameters as constant.

Predicting the deforestation probability using the binary logistic regression, random forest, ensemble rotational forest, REPTree: A case study at the Gumani River Basin, India.

Rapid population growth and its corresponding effects like the expansion of human settlement, increasing agricultural land, and industry lead to the loss of forest area in most parts of the world especially in such highly populated nations like India. Forest canopy density (FCD) is a useful measure to assess the forest cover change in its own as numerous works of forest change have been done using only FCD with the help of remote sensing and GIS. The coupling of binary logistic regression (BLR), random forest (RF), ensemble of rotational forest and reduced error pruning trees (RTF-REPTree) with FCD makes it more convenient to find out the deforestation probability. Advanced vegetation index (AVI), bare soil index (BSI), shadow index (SI), and scaled vegetation density (VD) derived from Landsat imageries are the main input parameters to identify the FCD. After preparing the FCDs of 1990, 2000, 2010 and 2017 the deforestation map of the study area was prepared and considered as dependent parameter for deforestation probability modelling. On the other hand, twelve deforestation determining factors were used to delineate the deforestation probability with the help of BLR, RF and RTF-REPTree models. These deforestation probability models were validated through area under curve (AUC), receiver operating characteristics (ROC), efficiency, true skill statistics (TSS) and Kappa co-efficient. The validation result shows that all the models like BLR (AUC = 0.874), RF (AUC = 0.886) and RTF-REPTree (AUC = 0.919) have good capability of assessing the deforestation probability but among them, RTF-REPTree has the highest accuracy level. The result also shows that low canopy density area i.e. not under the dense forest cover has increased by 9.26% from 1990 to 2017. Besides, nearly 30% of the forested land is under high to very high deforestation probable zone, which needs to be protected with immediate measures.

A novel ensemble computational intelligence approach for the spatial prediction of land subsidence susceptibility.

Land subsidence (LS) is a significant problem that can cause loss of life, damage property, and disrupt local economies. The Semnan Plain is an important part of Iran, where LS is a major problem for sustainable development and management. The plain represents the changes occurring in 40% of the country. We introduce a novel-ensemble intelligence approach (called ANN-bagging) that uses bagging as a meta- or ensemble-classifier of an artificial neural network (ANN) to predict LS spatially on the Semnan Plain in Semnan Province, Iran. The ensemble model's goodness-of-fit (to training data) and prediction accuracy (of the validation data) are compared to benchmarks set by ANN-bagging. A total of 96 locations of LS and 12 LS conditioning factors (LSCFs) were collected. Each feature in the LS inventory map (LSIM) was randomly assigned to one of four groups or folds, each comprising 25% of cases. The novel ensemble model was trained using 75% (3 folds) and validated with the remaining 25% (1 fold) in a four-fold cross-validation (CV) system, which is used to control for the effects of the random selection of the training and validation datasets. LSCFs for LS prediction were selected using the information-gain ratio and multi-collinearity test methods. Factor significance was evaluated using a random forest (RF) model. Groundwater drawdown, land use and land cover, elevation, and lithology were the most important LSCFs. Using the k-fold CV approaches, twelve LS susceptibility maps (LSSMs) were prepared as each fold employed all three models (ANN-bagging, ANN, and bagging). The LS susceptibility mapping showed that between 5.7% and 12.6% of the plain had very high LS susceptibility. All three models produced LS susceptibility maps with acceptable prediction accuracies and goodness-of-fits, but the best maps were produced by the ANN-bagging ensemble method. Overall, LS risk was highest in agricultural areas with high groundwater drawdown in the flat lowlands on quaternary sediments (Qcf). Groundwater extraction rates should be monitored and potentially limited in regions of severe or high LS susceptibility. This investigation details a novel methodology that can help environmental planners and policy makers to mitigate LS to help achieve sustainability.

Machine Learning-Based Gully Erosion Susceptibility Mapping: A Case Study of Eastern India.

Gully erosion is a form of natural disaster and one of the land loss mechanisms causing severe problems worldwide. This study aims to delineate the areas with the most severe gully erosion susceptibility (GES) using the machine learning techniques Random Forest (RF), Gradient Boosted Regression Tree (GBRT), Naïve Bayes Tree (NBT), and Tree Ensemble (TE). The gully inventory map (GIM) consists of 120 gullies. Of the 120 gullies, 84 gullies (70%) were used for training and 36 gullies (30%) were used to validate the models. Fourteen gully conditioning factors (GCFs) were used for GES modeling and the relationships between the GCFs and gully erosion was assessed using the weight-of-evidence (WofE) model. The GES maps were prepared using RF, GBRT, NBT, and TE and were validated using area under the receiver operating characteristic(AUROC) curve, the seed cell area index (SCAI) and five statistical measures including precision (PPV), false discovery rate (FDR), accuracy, mean absolute error (MAE), and root mean squared error (RMSE). Nearly 7% of the basin has high to very high susceptibility for gully erosion. Validation results proved the excellent ability of these models to predict the GES. Of the analyzed models, the RF (AUROC = 0.96, PPV = 1.00, FDR = 0.00, accuracy = 0.87, MAE = 0.11, RMSE = 0.19 for validation dataset) is accurate enough for modeling and better suited for GES modeling than the other models. Therefore, the RF model can be used to model the GES areas not only in this river basin but also in other areas with the same geo-environmental conditions.