Search

Soil erosion is a major cause of damage to agricultural lands in many parts of the world and is of particular concern in semiarid parts of Iran. We use five machine learning techniques—Random Forest (RF), M5P, Reduced Error Pruning Tree (REPTree), Gaussian Processes (GP), and Pace Regression (PR)—under two scenarios to predict soil erodibility in the Dehgolan region, Kurdistan Province, Iran. Our models are based on a variety of soil properties, including soil texture, structure, permeability, bulk density, aggregates, organic matter, and chemical constituents. We checked the validity of the models with statistical metrics, including the coefficient of determination (R2 ), mean absolute error (MAE), root mean squared error (RMSE), T-tests, Taylor diagrams, and box plots. All five algorithms show a positive correlation between the soil erodibility factor (K) and silt, sand, fine sand, bulk density, and infiltration. The GP model has the highest prediction accuracy (R² ¼ 0.843, MAE ¼ 0.0044, RMSE ¼ 0.0050). It outperformed the RF (R² ¼ 0.812, MAE ¼ 0.0050, RMSE ¼ 0.0061), PR, (R² ¼ 0.794, MAE ¼ 0.0037, RMSE ¼ 0.0052), M5P (R² ¼ 0.781, MAE ¼ 0.0043, RMSE ¼ 0.0053), and REPTree (R² ¼ 0.752, MAE ¼ 0.0045, RMSE ¼ 0.0056) algorithms and thus is a useful complement to studies aimed at predicting soil erodibility in areas with similar climate and soil characteristics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Understanding landslide characteristics such as their locations, dimensions, and spatial distribution is of highly importance in landslide modeling and prediction. The main objective of this study was to assess the effect of different sample sizes and raster resolutions in landslide susceptibility modeling and prediction accuracy of shallow landslides. In this regard, the Bijar region of the Kurdistan province (Iran) was selected as a case study. Accordingly, a total of 20 landslide conditioning factors were considered with six different raster resolutions (10 m, 15 m, 20 m, 30 m, 50 m, and 100 m) and four different sample sizes (60/40%, 70/30%, 80/20%, and 90/10%) were investigated. The merit of each conditioning factors was assessed using the Information Gain Ratio (IGR) technique, whereas Alternating decision tree (ADTree), which has been rarely explored for landslide modeling, was used for building models. Performance of the models was assessed using the area under the ROC curve (AUROC), sensitivity, specificity, accuracy, kappa and RMSE criteria. The results show that with increasing the number of training pixels in the modeling process, the accuracy is increased. Findings also indicate that for the sample sizes of 60/40% (AUROC = 0.800) and 70/30% (AUROC = 0.899), the highest prediction accuracy is derived with the raster resolution of 10 m. With the raster resolution of 20 m, the highest prediction accuracy for the sample size of 80/20% (AUROC = 0.871) and 90/10% (AUROC = 0.864). These outcomes provide a guideline for future research enabling researchers to select an optimal data resolution for landslide hazard modeling. Highlights • Prediction accuracy of landslide modeling under various scenarios was assessed. • Best combination of sample size and raster resolution for preparing LSMs was introduced. • Best sample size for the raster resolution of 10 m was acquired as 60/40% and 70/30%. • Best sample size for the raster resolution of 20 m was obtained as 80/20% and 90/10%. • Raster resolution of 10 m with sample size of 70/30% obtained the highest accuracy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The main objective of this study was to produce landslide susceptibility maps for Langao County, China, using a novel hybrid artificial intelligence method based on rotation forest ensembles (RFEs) and naïve Bayes tree (NBT) classifiers labeled the RF-NBT model. The spatial database consisted of eighteen conditioning factors that were selected using the information gain ratio (IGR) method. The model was evaluated using quantitative statistical criteria, including the sensitivity, specificity, accuracy, root mean squared error (RMSE), and area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC). Furthermore, the new model was compared with the NBT, functional tree (FT), logistic model tree (LMT) and reduced-error pruning tree (REPTree) soft computing benchmark models. The findings indicated that the RF-NBT model showed an increased prediction accuracy relative to the NBT model using both the training and validation datasets, and the RF-NBT model exhibited a greater capability for landslide susceptibility mapping. The new RF-NBT model also showed the most preferable results compared with the FT, LMT and REPTree models. Finally, an analysis of the landslide density (LD) using the RF-NBT model demonstrated that the very high susceptibility (VHS) class had the highest LD (3.552) among the landslide susceptibility maps. These results can be used for the planning and management of areas vulnerable to landslides in order to prevent damages caused by such natural disasters. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study attempts to compare popular statistical methods (linear, logarithmic, quadratic, power and exponential functions) with machine learning methods (multi-layer perceptron (MLP), radial base function (RBF), adaptive neural-based fuzzy inference system (ANFIS) and support vector machine (SVM)) for simulating the volume of landslides based on their surface area (VL ~ AL) in the Kurdistan province, Iran. Performances of the models were validated using some commonly error functions including the Adjusted R 2 , F-test and AIC (Akaike Information Criteria). The results showed that the power model demonstrates the best performance compared to other statistical methods whereas the ANFIS model outperforms other machine learning approaches. Furthermore, the comparative results showed that machine learning methods indicate better performances than simple statistical methods for simulating the volume of landslides in the study area. In practice, the outputs of this research can help managers and investigators decrease the cost of field surveys and measurements of volumes of landslides in landslide hazard management projects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A new artificial intelligence (AI) model, called Bagging-LMT - a combination of bagging ensemble and Logistic Model Tree (LMT) - is introduced for mapping flood susceptibility. A spatial database was generated for the Haraz watershed, northern Iran, that included a flood inventory map and eleven flood conditioning factors based on the Information Gain Ratio (IGR). The model was evaluated using precision, sensitivity, specificity, accuracy, Root Mean Square Error, Mean Absolute Error, Kappa and area under the receiver operating characteristic curve criteria. The model was also compared with four state-of-the-art benchmark soft computing models, including LMT, logistic regression, Bayesian logistic regression, and random forest. Results revealed that the proposed model outperformed all these models and indicate that the proposed model can be used for sustainable management of flood-prone areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Flood routing is an important topic in engineering hydrology and an integral part of flood management and hydrodynamic modelling studies. Muskingum and Muskingum-Cunge methods are commonly used in flood routing studies. Here, we perform a systematic review of research on linear and non-linear Muskingum and Muskingum-Cunge flood routing methods to document how they have contributed to the development of flood science. Specifically, we document the evolution of publications involving Muskingum flood routing methods between 1938 and 2021. Research gaps progressively filled over time include the use of optimization algorithms, and tools for uncertainty and sensitivity analysis. In addition, we document various case studies that were conducted to improve flood routing performance. The chronological analysis reveals performance improvement of Muskingum and Muskingum-Cunge models in terms of cost effectiveness, user friendliness and ease of use. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Reliable flash flood susceptibility maps are a vital tool for land planners and emergency management officials for early flood warning and mitigation. We have developed a new ensemble learning model that predicts flash flood susceptibility at Haraz, Iran. The new model couples a Bayesian Belief Network (BBN) model with an extreme learning machine (ELM) and backpropagation (BP) structure optimized by a genetic algorithm (GA) named GA-BN-NN model. We applied the support vector machine (SVM) technique to a database of 194 flood locations with ten conditioning factors. An artificial neural network (ANN) algorithm with a multi-layer perceptron function, MLP-BP, optimized by a genetic algorithm, GA-MLP, and a shuffled frog-leaping algorithm, SFLA-MLP, were used as benchmark models for assessing the power prediction of the proposed model. Statistical measures, including sensitivity, specificity, accuracy, F1-measure and Jaccard coefficient, and root mean square error, were used to evaluate the goodness-of-fit and prediction accuracy, respectively, of the training and testing datasets. We found that all ten factors are positively correlated with flood occurrence, but slope angle has the highest average merit (AM = 9.7) and thus contributes most to the occurrence of flooding. Results indicate that the GA-BN-NN model has the highest goodness-of-fit and prediction accuracy (AUC = 0.966) and hence outperforms other ensemble learning models that we tested — the SFLA-MLP, MLP-BP, and GA-MLP models. We thus conclude that the proposed model is a promising technique for managing risk in flood-prone areas around the world. • A new deep learning model, E(T)-ELM-DBN-BP, was explored for flash flood susceptibility mapping. • The LSSVM technique was applied to determine the most important flash flood conditioning factors. • The MLP was optimized by BP, GA and SFLA algorithms as benchmark models to validity of the new model. • The E(T)-ELM-DBN-BP model outperformed the E(T)-MLP-BP, E(W)-MLP-GA and E(W)-MLP-SFLA models. • The new proposed model was offered as a promising and trustworthy tool for flash flood mitigation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mapping flood-prone areas is a key activity in flood disaster management. In this paper, we propose a new flood susceptibility mapping technique. We employ new ensemble models based on bagging as a meta-classifier and K-Nearest Neighbor (KNN) coarse, cosine, cubic, and weighted base classifiers to spatially forecast flooding in the Haraz watershed in northern Iran. We identified flood-prone areas using data from Sentinel-1 sensor. We then selected 10 conditioning factors to spatially predict floods and assess their predictive power using the Relief Attribute Evaluation (RFAE) method. Model validation was performed using two statistical error indices and the area under the curve (AUC). Our results show that the Bagging–Cubic–KNN ensemble model outperformed other ensemble models. It decreased the overfitting and variance problems in the training dataset and enhanced the prediction accuracy of the Cubic–KNN model (AUC=0.660). We therefore recommend that the Bagging–Cubic–KNN model be more widely applied for the sustainable management of flood-prone areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Scouring is the most common cause of bridge failure. This study was conducted to evaluate the efficiency of the Artificial Neural Networks (ANN) in determining scour depth around composite bridge piers. The experimental data, attained in different conditions and various pile cap locations, were used to obtain the ANN model and to compare the results of the model with most well-known empirical, HEC-18 and FDOT, methods. The data were divided into training and evaluation sets. The ANN models were trained using the experimental data, and their efficiency was evaluated using statistical test. The results showed that to estimate scour at the composite piers, feed-forward propagation network with three neurons in the hidden layer and hyperbolic sigmoid tangent transfer function was with the highest accuracy. The results also indicated a better estimation of the scour depth by the proposed ANN than the empirical methods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study, we introduced a novel hybrid artificial intelligence approach of rotation forest (RF) as a Meta/ensemble classifier based on alternating decision tree (ADTree) as a base classifier called RF-ADTree in order to spatially predict gully erosion at Klocheh watershed of Kurdistan province, Iran. A total of 915 gully erosion locations along with 22 gully conditioning factors were used to construct a database. Some soft computing benchmark models (SCBM) including the ADTree, the Support Vector Machine by two kernel functions such as Polynomial and Radial Base Function (SVM-Polynomial and SVM-RBF), the Logistic Regression (LR), and the Naïve Bayes Multinomial Updatable (NBMU) models were used for comparison of the designed model. Results indicated that 19 conditioning factors were effective among which distance to river, geomorphology, land use, hydrological group, lithology and slope angle were the most remarkable factors for gully modeling process. Additionally, results of modeling concluded the RF-ADTree ensemble model could significantly improve (area under the curve (AUC) = 0.906) the prediction accuracy of the ADTree model (AUC = 0.882). The new proposed model had also the highest performance (AUC = 0.913) in comparison to the SVM-Polynomial model (AUC = 0.879), the SVM-RBF model (AUC = 0.867), the LR model (AUC = 0.75), the ADTree model (AUC = 0.861) and the NBMU model (AUC = 0.811). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The main objective of this research was to introduce a novel machine learning algorithm of alternating decision tree (ADTree) based on the multiboost (MB), bagging (BA), rotation forest (RF) and random subspace (RS) ensemble algorithms under two scenarios of different sample sizes and raster resolutions for spatial prediction of shallow landslides around Bijar City, Kurdistan Province, Iran. The evaluation of modeling process was checked by some statistical measures and area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUROC). Results show that, for combination of sample sizes of 60%/40% and 70%/30% with a raster resolution of 10 m, the RS model, while, for 80%/20% and 90%/10% with a raster resolution of 20 m, the MB model obtained a high goodness-of-fit and prediction accuracy. The RS-ADTree and MB-ADTree ensemble models outperformed the ADTree model in two scenarios. Overall, MB-ADTree in sample size of 80%/20% with a resolution of 20 m (area under the curve (AUC) = 0.942) and sample size of 60%/40% with a resolution of 10 m (AUC = 0.845) had the highest and lowest prediction accuracy, respectively. The findings confirm that the newly proposed models are very promising alternative tools to assist planners and decision makers in the task of managing landslide prone areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A novel artificial intelligence approach of Bayesian Logistic Regression (BLR) and its ensembles [Random Subspace (RS), Adaboost (AB), Multiboost (MB) and Bagging] was introduced for landslide susceptibility mapping in a part of Kamyaran city in Kurdistan Province, Iran. A spatial database was generated which includes a total of 60 landslide locations and a set of conditioning factors tested by the Information Gain Ratio technique. Performance of these models was evaluated using the area under the ROC curve (AUROC) and statistical index-based methods. Results showed that the hybrid ensemble models could significantly improve the performance of the base classifier of BLR (AUROC = 0.930). However, RS model (AUROC = 0.975) had the highest performance in comparison to other landslide ensemble models, followed by Bagging (AUROC = 0.972), MB (AUROC = 0.970) and AB (AUROC = 0.957) models, respectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Globally, and in China, landslides constitute one of the most important and frequently encountered natural hazard events. In the present study, landslide susceptibility evaluation was undertaken using novel ensembles of bivariate statistical-methods-based (evidential belief function (EBF), statistical index (SI), and weights of evidence (WoE)) kernel logistic regression machine learning classifiers. A landslide inventory comprising 222 landslides and 15 conditioning factors (slope angle, slope aspect, altitude, plan curvature, profile curvature, stream power index, sediment transport index, topographic wetness index, distance to rivers, distance to roads, distance to faults, NDVI, land use, lithology, and rainfall) was prepared as the spatial database. Correlation analysis and selection of conditioning factors were conducted using multicollinearity analysis and classifier attribute evaluation methods, respectively. The receiver operating characteristic curve method was used to validate the models. The areas under the success rate (AUC_T) and prediction rate (AUC_P) curves and landslide density analysis were also used to assess the prediction capability of the landslide susceptibility maps. Results showed that the EBF-KLR hybrid model had the highest predictive capability in landslide susceptibility assessment (AUC values of 0.814 and 0.753 for the training and validation datasets, respectively; AUC_T value of 0.8511 and AUC_P value of 0.7615), followed in descending order by the SI-KLR and WoE-KLR hybrid models. These findings indicate that hybrid models could improve the predictive capability of bivariate models, and that the EBF-KLR is a promising hybrid model for the spatial prediction of landslides in susceptible areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Landslides are major hazards for human activities often causing great damage to human lives and infrastructure. Therefore, the main aim of the present study is to evaluate and compare three machine learning algorithms (MLAs) including Naïve Bayes (NB), radial basis function (RBF) Classifier, and RBF Network for landslide susceptibility mapping (LSM) at Longhai area in China. A total of 14 landslide conditioning factors were obtained from various data sources, then the frequency ratio (FR) and support vector machine (SVM) methods were used for the correlation and selection the most important factors for modelling process, respectively. Subsequently, the resulting three models were validated and compared using some statistical metrics including area under the receiver operating characteristics (AUROC) curve, and Friedman and Wilcoxon signed-rank tests The results indicated that the RBF Classifier model had the highest goodness-of-fit and performance based on the training and validation datasets. The results concluded that the RBF Classifier model outperformed and outclassed (AUROC = 0.881), the NB (AUROC = 0.872) and the RBF Network (AUROC = 0.854) models. The obtained results pointed out that the RBF Classifier model is a promising method for spatial prediction of landslide over the world. Graphical abstract Unlabelled Image Highlights • The NB, RBF Classifier and RBF Network models were applied for landslide modelling. • Support vector machine (SVM) was used for conditioning factor selection process. • Evaluation and comparison of MLAs were performed by some statistical metrics. • The RBF Classifier model outperformed the NB and the RBF Network models. • The proposed model was suggested for other landslide prone areas over the world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study addresses landslide susceptibility mapping (LSM) using a novel ensemble approach of using a bivariate statistical method (weights of evidence [WoE] and evidential belief function [EBF])-based logistic model tree (LMT) classifier. The performance and prediction capability of the ensemble models were assessed using the area under the ROC curve (AUROC), standard error, 95% confidence intervals and significance level P. Model performance analyses indicated that the AUROC values of the WoE-LMT ensemble model using the training and validation data-sets were 86.02 and 85.9%, respectively, whereas those of the EBF-LMT ensemble model were 88.2 and 87.8%, respectively. On the other hand, the AUC curves for the four landslide susceptibility maps indicated that the AUC values of the ensemble models of WoE-LMT (85.11 and 83.98%) and EBF-LMT (86.21 and 85.23%) could improve the performance and prediction accuracy of single WoE (84.23 and 82.46%) and EBF (85.39 and 81.33%) models for the training and validation data-sets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Landslides are a dangerous natural hazard that can critically harm road infrastructure in mountainous places, resulting in significant damage and fatalities. The primary purpose of this study was to assess the efficacy of three machine learning algorithms (MLAs) for landslide susceptibility mapping including random forest (RF), decision tree (DT), and support vector machine (SVM). We selected a case study region that is frequently affected by landslides, the important Kamyaran–Sarvabad road in the Kurdistan province of Iran. Altogether, 14 landslide evaluation factors were input into the MLAs including slope, aspect, elevation, river density, distance to river, distance to fault, fault density, distance to road, road density, land use, slope curvature, lithology, stream power index (SPI), and topographic wetness index (TWI). We identified 64 locations of landslides by field survey of which 70% were randomly employed for building and training the three MLAs while the remaining locations were used for validation. The area under the receiver operating characteristics (AUC) reached a value of 0.94 for the decision tree compared to 0.82 for the random forest, and 0.75 for support vector machines model. Thus, the decision tree model was most accurate in identifying the areas at risk for future landslides. The obtained results may inform geoscientists and those in decision-making roles for landslide management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Documenting habitats of rangeland plant species is required to properly manage rangelands and to understand ecosystem processes. A reliable rangeland species potential map can help managers and policy makers design a sustainable grazing system on rangelands. The aim of this study is to map the plant species in the Qurveh City rangelands, Kurdistan Province, Iran, using state-of-the-art machine learning algorithms, including Support Vector Machine (SVM), Artificial Neural Network (ANN), Naïve Bayes (NB), Bayes Net (BN) and Classification and Regression Tree (CART). A total of 185 rangeland species were used in the study, together with 20 conditioning factors, to build and validate models. The One-R feature section technique and multicollinearity test were used, respectively, to determine the most important factors and correlations between them. Model validation was performed using sensitivity, specificity, accuracy, F1-measure, Matthews correlation coefficient (MCC), Kappa, root mean square error (RMSE), and area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC). Results showed that topographic wetness index (TWI), slope angle, elevation, soil phosphorus and soil potassium were the five most important factors to increase the rangeland plants habitat suitability. The Naïve Bayes algorithm (AUC = 0.782) had the highest performance and prediction accuracy and best consistency across the species in the investigated rangeland, followed by the SVM (AUC = 0.763), ANN (AUC = 0.762), CART (AUC = 0.627), and BN (AUC = 0.617) models. [Display omitted] • The habitats of important ecological rangeland plants were modeled and mapped. • Machine learning algorithms are robust tools in rangeland rehabilitation and management. • Topographic, phosphorus and potassium were the main factors to increase habitat suitability. • NB and CART had the highest and lowest prediction for studied species of investigated rangeland. • High potential rangeland habitats can help decision makers in better rangeland management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We mapped landslide susceptibility in Kamyaran city of Kurdistan Province, Iran, using a robust deep-learning (DP) model based on a combination of extreme learning machine (ELM), deep belief network (DBN), back propagation (BP), and genetic algorithm (GA). A total of 118 landslide locations were recorded and divided in the training and testing datasets. We selected 25 conditioning factors, and of these, we specified the most important ones by an information gain ratio (IGR) technique. We assessed the performance of the DP model using statistical measures including sensitivity, specificity, accuracy, F1-measure, and area under-the-receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC). Three benchmark algorithms, i.e., support vector machine (SVM), REPTree, and NBTree, were used to check the applicability of the proposed model. The results by IGR concluded that of the 25 conditioning factors, only 16 factors were important for our modeling procedure, and of these, distance to road, road density, lithology and land use were the four most significant factors. Results based on the testing dataset revealed that the DP model had the highest accuracy (0.926) of the compared algorithms, followed by NBTree (0.917), REPTree (0.903), and SVM (0.894). The landslide susceptibility maps prepared from the DP model with AUC = 0.870 performed the best. We consider the DP model a suitable tool for landslide susceptibility mapping. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the present study, Rotation Forest ensemble was integrated with different base classifiers to develop different hybrid models namely Rotation Forest based Support Vector Machines (RFSVM), Rotation Forest based Artificial Neural Networks (RFANN), Rotation Forest based Decision Trees (RFDT), and Rotation Forest based Naïve Bayes (RFNB) for landslide susceptibility modelling. The validity of these models was evaluated using statistical methods such as Root Mean Square Error (RMSE), Kappa index, accuracy, and the area under the success rate and predictive rate curves (AUC). Part of the landslide prone area of Pithoragarh district, Uttarakhand, Himalaya, India was selected as the study area. Results indicate that the RFDT is the best model showing the highest predictive capability (AUC = 0.741) in comparison to RFANN (AUC = 0.710), RFSVM (AUC = 0.701), and RFNB (AUC = 0.640) models. The present study would be helpful in the selection of best model for landslide susceptibility mapping. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Flooding is one of the most significant environmental challenges and can easily cause fatal incidents and economic losses. Flood reduction is costly and time-consuming task; so it is necessary to accurately detect flood susceptible areas. This work presents an effective flood susceptibility mapping framework by involving an adaptive neuro-fuzzy inference system (ANFIS) with two metaheuristic methods of biogeography based optimization (BBO) and imperialistic competitive algorithm (ICA). A total of 13 flood influencing factors, including slope, altitude, aspect, curvature, topographic wetness index, stream power index, sediment transport index, distance to river, landuse, normalized difference vegetation index, lithology, rainfall and soil type, were used in the proposed framework for spatial modeling and Dingnan County in China was selected for the application of the proposed methods due to data availability. There are 115 flood occurrences in the study area which were randomly separated into training (70% of the total) and verification (30%) sets. To perform the proposed framework, the step-wise weight assessment ratio analysis algorithm is first used to evaluate the correlation between influencing factors and floods. Then, two ensemble methods of ANFIS-BBO and ANFIS-ICA are constructed for spatial prediction and producing flood susceptibility maps. Finally, these resultant maps are assessed in terms of several statistical and error measures, including receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve and area under the ROC curve (AUC), root-mean-square error (RMSE). The experimental results demonstrated that the two ensemble methods were more effective than ANFIS in the study area. For instance, the predictive AUC values of 0.8407, 0.9045 and 0.9044 were achieved by the methods of ANFIS, ANFIS-BBO and ANFIS-ICA, respectively. Moreover, the RMSE values for ANFIS, ANFIS-BBO and ANFIS-ICA using the verification set were 0.3100, 0.2730 and 0.2700, respectively. In addition, as regards ANFIS-BBO and ANFIS-ICA, a total areas of 39.30% and 35.39% were classified as highly susceptible to flooding. Therefore, the proposed ensemble framework can be used for flood susceptibility mapping in other sites with similar geo-environmental characteristics for taking measures to manage and prevent flood damages. Image 1 • Prediction power of two novel ensemble methods for flood susceptibility mapping. • The proposed ensemble methods can improve the prediction performance of ANFIS. • The proposed methods can accurately produce flood susceptibility maps for mitigation and management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study, we introduced novel hybrid of evidence believe function (EBF) with logistic regression (EBF-LR) and logistic model tree (EBF-LMT) for landslide susceptibility modelling. Fourteen conditioning factors were selected, including slope aspect, elevation, slope angle, profile curvature, plan curvature, topographic wetness index (TWI), stream sediment transport index (STI), stream power index (SPI), distance to rivers, distance to faults, distance to roads, lithology, normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI), and land use. The importance of factors was assessed using correlation attribute evaluation method. Finally, the performance of three models was evaluated using the area under the curve (AUC). The validation process indicated that the EBF-LMT model acquired the highest AUC for the training (84.7%) and validation (76.5%) datasets, followed by EBF-LR and EBF models. Our result also confirmed that combination of a decision tree-logistic regression-based algorithm with a bivariate statistical model lead to enhance the prediction power of individual landslide models. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research aims at proposing a new artificial intelligence approach (namely RVM-ICA) which is based on the Relevance Vector Machine (RVM) and the Imperialist Competitive Algorithm (ICA) optimization for landslide susceptibility modeling. A Geographic Information System (GIS) spatial database was generated from Lang Son city in Lang Son province (Vietnam). This GIS database includes a landslide inventory map and fourteen landslide conditioning factors. The suitability of these factors for landslide susceptibility modeling in the study area was verified by the Information Gain Ratio (IGR) technique. A landslide susceptibility prediction model based on RVM-ICA and the GIS database was established by training and prediction phases. The predictive capability of the new approach was evaluated by calculations of sensitivity, specificity, accuracy, and the area under the Receiver Operating Characteristic curve (AUC). In addition, to assess the applicability of the proposed model, two state-of-the-art soft computing techniques including the support vector machine (SVM) and logistic regression (LR) were used as benchmark methods. The results of this study show that RVM-ICA with AUC = 0.92 achieved a high goodness-of-fit based on both the training and testing datasets. The predictive capability of RVM-ICA outperformed those of SVM with AUC = 0.91 and LR with AUC = 0.87. The experimental results confirm that the newly proposed model is a very promising alternative to assist planners and decision makers in the task of managing landslide prone areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since landslide detection using the combination of AIRSAR data and GIS-based susceptibility mapping has been rarely conducted in tropical environments, the aim of this study is to compare and validate support vector machine (SVM) and index of entropy (IOE) methods for landslide susceptibility assessment in Cameron Highlands area, Malaysia. For this purpose, ten conditioning factors and observed landslides were detected by AIRSAR data, WorldView-1 and SPOT 5 satellite images. A spatial database was generated including a total of 92 landslide locations encompassing the same number of observed and detected landslides, which was divided into training (80%; 74 landslide locations) and validation (20%; 18 landslide locations) datasets. Results of the difference between observed and detected landslides using root mean square error (RMSE) indicated that only 16.3% error exists, which is fairly acceptable. The validation process was performed using statistical-based measures and the area under the receiver operating characteristic (AUROC) curves. Results of validation process indicated that the SVM model has the highest values of sensitivity (88.9%), specificity (77.8%), accuracy (83.3%), Kappa (0.663) and AUROC (84.5%), followed by the IOE model. Overall, the SVM model applied to detected landslides is considered to be a promising technique that could be tested and utilized for landslide susceptibility assessment in tropical environments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study, land subsidence susceptibility was assessed for a study area in South Korea by using four machine learning models including Bayesian Logistic Regression (BLR), Support Vector Machine (SVM), Logistic Model Tree (LMT) and Alternate Decision Tree (ADTree). Eight conditioning factors were distinguished as the most important affecting factors on land subsidence of Jeong-am area, including slope angle, distance to drift, drift density, geology, distance to lineament, lineament density, land use and rock-mass rating (RMR) were applied to modelling. About 24 previously occurred land subsidence were surveyed and used as training dataset (70% of data) and validation dataset (30% of data) in the modelling process. Each studied model generated a land subsidence susceptibility map (LSSM). The maps were verified using several appropriate tools including statistical indices, the area under the receiver operating characteristic (AUROC) and success rate (SR) and prediction rate (PR) curves. The results of this study indicated that the BLR model produced LSSM with higher acceptable accuracy and reliability compared to the other applied models, even though the other models also had reasonable results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• MCDM and machine learning models were compared for flood modelling. • Results show that machine learning is more potential for flood modelling. • Out of machine learning methods, NB outperforms NBT. • Out of MCDM methods, SAW and VIKOR outperform TOPSIS. Floods around the world are having devastating effects on human life and property. In this paper, three Multi-Criteria Decision-Making (MCDM) analysis techniques (VIKOR, TOPSIS and SAW), along with two machine learning methods (NBT and NB), were tested for their ability to model flood susceptibility in one of China's most flood-prone areas, the Ningdu Catchment. Twelve flood conditioning factors were used as input parameters: Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI), lithology, land use, distance from river, curvature, altitude, Stream Transport Index (STI), Topographic Wetness Index (TWI), Stream Power Index (SPI), soil type, slope and rainfall. The predictive capacity of the models was evaluated and validated using the Area Under the Receiver Operating Characteristic curve (AUC). While all models showed a strong flood prediction capability (AUC > 0.95), the NBT model performed best (AUC = 0.98), suggesting that, among the models studied, the NBT model is a promising tool for the assessment of flood-prone areas and can allow for proper planning and management of flood hazards. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Nowadays, a number of machine learning prediction methods are being applied in the field of landslide susceptibility modeling of the large area especially in the difficult hilly terrain. In the present study, hybrid machine learning approaches of Reduced Error Pruning Trees (REPT) and different ensemble techniques were used for the construction of four novel hybrid models namely Bagging based Reduced Error Pruning Trees (BREPT), MultiBoost based Reduced Error Pruning Trees (MBREPT), Rotation Forest-based Reduced Error Pruning Trees (RFREPT), Random Subspace-based Reduced Error Pruning Trees (RSREPT) for landslide susceptibility assessment and prediction. In total, ten topographical and geo-environmental landslide conditioning factors were considered for analyzing their spatial relationship with landslide occurrences. Receiver Operating Characteristic curve, Statistical Indexes, and Root Mean Square Error methods were used to validate performance of these models. Analysis of model results indicate that the BREPT is the best model for landslide susceptibility assessment in comparison to other models. Highlights • New hybrid models of REPT and its ensembles developed for landslide susceptibility modeling. • RMSE, accuracy, Chi square test, and ROC curve used for validation of the models. • Results indicate that BREPT is the best method for modeling of landslide susceptibility. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this research, eight individual machine learning and statistical models are implemented and compared, and based on their results, seven ensemble models for flood susceptibility assessment are introduced. The individual models included artificial neural networks, classification and regression trees, flexible discriminant analysis, generalized linear model, generalized additive model, boosted regression trees, multivariate adaptive regression splines, and maximum entropy, and the ensemble models were Ensemble Model committee averaging (EMca), Ensemble Model confidence interval Inferior (EMciInf), Ensemble Model confidence interval Superior (EMciSup), Ensemble Model to estimate the coefficient of variation (EMcv), Ensemble Model to estimate the mean (EMmean), Ensemble Model to estimate the median (EMmedian), and Ensemble Model based on weighted mean (EMwmean). The data set covered 201 flood events in the Haraz watershed (Mazandaran province in Iran) and 10,000 randomly selected non-occurrence points. Among the individual models, the Area Under the Receiver Operating Characteristic (AUROC), which showed the highest value, belonged to boosted regression trees (0.975) and the lowest value was recorded for generalized linear model (0.642). On the other hand, the proposed EMmedian resulted in the highest accuracy (0.976) among all models. In spite of the outstanding performance of some models, nevertheless, variability among the prediction of individual models was considerable. Therefore, to reduce uncertainty, creating more generalizable, more stable, and less sensitive models, ensemble forecasting approaches and in particular the EMmedian is recommended for flood susceptibility assessment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Floods are one of the most damaging natural hazards causing huge loss of property, infrastructure and lives. Prediction of occurrence of flash flood locations is very difficult due to sudden change in climatic condition and manmade factors. However, prior identification of flood susceptible areas can be done with the help of machine learning techniques for proper timely management of flood hazards. In this study, we tested four decision trees based machine learning models namely Logistic Model Trees (LMT), Reduced Error Pruning Trees (REPT), Naïve Bayes Trees (NBT), and Alternating Decision Trees (ADT) for flash flood susceptibility mapping at the Haraz Watershed in the northern part of Iran. For this, a spatial database was constructed with 201 present and past flood locations and eleven flood-influencing factors namely ground slope, altitude, curvature, Stream Power Index (SPI), Topographic Wetness Index (TWI), land use, rainfall, river density, distance from river, lithology, and Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) . Statistical evaluation measures, the Receiver Operating Characteristic (ROC) curve, and Freidman and Wilcoxon signed-rank tests were used to validate and compare the prediction capability of the models. Results show that the ADT model has the highest prediction capability for flash flood susceptibility assessment, followed by the NBT, the LMT, and the REPT, respectively. These techniques have proven successful in quickly determining flood susceptible areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the present study, logistic regression analysis has been used to create a landslide hazard map for Sajarood basin, Northern Iran. At first, an inventory map of 95 landslides was used to produce a dependent variable, a value of 0 for absence and 1 for presence of landslides. The effect of causative parameters on landslide occurrence was assessed by the corresponding coefficient that appears in the logistic regression function. The interpretation of the coefficients shows that the road network plays the major role in determining landslide occurrence. Elevation, slope curvature, rainfall and distance to fault were excluded from the final analysis, because these variables do not significantly add to the predictive power of the logistic regression. After running the final probability function into Arc/view 3.2 software, a landslide susceptibility map has been produced. The accuracy assessment shows an overall accuracy of the landslide susceptibility map to be 85.3%. An area of 53.01% is found to be located in a very low, 18.33% in low, 20.96% in moderate and 7.7% in high-risk regions. The proposed susceptibility map was tested using -2LL, Cox and Snell R2, Nagelkerk R2 and Roc procedure, and it is found to be very reliable. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the development of remote sensing algorithms and increased access to satellite data, generating up-to-date, accurate land use/land cover (LULC) maps has become increasingly feasible for evaluating and managing changes in land cover as created by changes to ecosystem and land use. The main objective of our study is to evaluate the performance of Support Vector Machine (SVM), Artificial Neural Network (ANN), Maximum Likelihood Classification (MLC), Minimum Distance (MD), and Mahalanobis (MH) algorithms and compare them in order to generate a LULC map using data from Sentinel 2 and Landsat 8 satellites. Further, we also investigate the effect of a penalty parameter on SVM results. Our study uses different kernel functions and hidden layers for SVM and ANN algorithms, respectively. We generated the training and validation datasets from Google Earth images and GPS data prior to pre-processing satellite data. In the next phase, we classified the images using training data and algorithms. Ultimately, to evaluate outcomes, we used the validation data to generate a confusion matrix of the classified images. Our results showed that with optimal tuning parameters, the SVM classifier yielded the highest overall accuracy (OA) of 94%, performing better for both satellite data compared to other methods. In addition, for our scenes, Sentinel 2 date was slightly more accurate compared to Landsat 8. The parametric algorithms MD and MLC provided the lowest accuracy of 80.85% and 74.68% for the data from Sentinel 2 and Landsat 8. In contrast, our evaluation using the SVM tuning parameters showed that the linear kernel with the penalty parameter 150 for Sentinel 2 and the penalty parameter 200 for Landsat 8 yielded the highest accuracies. Further, ANN classification showed that increasing the hidden layers drastically reduces classification accuracy for both datasets, reducing zero for three hidden layers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• A new robustness deep learning model, DEBP, was developed for flood susceptibility mapping. • The IGR feature selection was applied to determine the most important flood conditioning factors. • The proposed model was optimized by PSO to enhance the goodness-of-fit and prediction accuracy. • The DEBP model outperformed the ANNRBF, LR, LMTree, FTree, and ADTree machine learning algorithms. • The new proposed model was offered as a promising and trustworthy tool for flood mitigation. This paper introduces a new deep-learning algorithm of deep belief network (DBN) based on an extreme learning machine (ELM) that is structured by back propagation (BN) and optimized by particle swarm optimization (PSO) algorithm, named DEBP, for flood susceptibility mapping in the Vu Gia-Thu Bon watershed, central Vietnam. We use 847 locations of floods that occurred in 2007, 2009, and 2013 and 16 flood conditioning factors evaluated by an information gain ratio (IGR) technique to construct and validate the proposed model. Statistical metrics, including sensitivity, specificity, accuracy, F1-measure, Jaccard coefficient, Matthews correlation coefficient (MCC), root mean square error (RMSE), and area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC), are used to assess the goodness-of-fit/performance and prediction accuracy of the new deep learning model. We further compare the proposed model with several well-known machine learning algorithms, including artificial neural network-based radial base function (ANNRBF), logistic regression (LR), logistic model tree (LMTree), functional tree (FTree), and alternating decision tree (ADTree). The new proposed model, DEBP, has the highest goodness-of-fit (AUC = 0.970) and prediction accuracy (AUC = 0.967) of all of the tested models and thus shows promise as a tool for flood susceptibility modeling. We conclude that novel deep learning algorithms such as the one used in this study can improve the accuracy of flood susceptibility maps that are required by planners, decision makers, and government agencies to manage of areas vulnerable to flood-induced damage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this study is to compare nine models, composed of certainty factors (CFs), weights of evidence (WoE), evidential belief function (EBF) and two machine learning models, namely random forest (RF) and support vector machine (SVM). In the first step, fifteen landslide conditioning factors were selected to prepare thematic maps, including slope aspect, slope angle, elevation, stream power index (SPI), sediment transport index (STI), topographic wetness index (TWI), plan curvature, profile curvature, land use, normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI), soil, lithology, rainfall, distance to rivers and distance to roads. In the second step, 152 landslides were randomly divided into two groups at a ratio of 70/30 as the training and validation datasets. In the third step, the weights of the CF, WoE and EBF models for conditioning factor were calculated separately, and the weights were used to generate the landslide susceptibility maps. The weights of each bivariate model were substituted into the RF and SVM models, respectively, and six integrated models and landslide susceptibility maps were obtained. In the fourth step, the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve and related parameters were used for verification and comparison, and then the success rate curve and the prediction rate curves were used for re-analysis. The comprehensive results showed that the hybrid model is superior to the bivariate model, and all nine models have excellent performance. The WoE–RF model has the highest predictive ability (AUC_T: 0.9993, AUC_P: 0.8968). The landslide susceptibility maps produced in this study can be used to manage landslide hazard and risk in Linyou County and other similar areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the present study, gully erosion susceptibility was evaluated for the area of the Robat Turk Watershed in Iran. The assessment of gully erosion susceptibility was performed using four state-of-the-art data mining techniques: random forest (RF), credal decision trees (CDTree), kernel logistic regression (KLR), and best-first decision tree (BFTree). To the best of our knowledge, the KLR and CDTree algorithms have been rarely applied to gully erosion modeling. In the first step, from the 242 gully erosion locations that were identified, 70% (170 gullies) were selected as the training dataset, and the other 30% (72 gullies) were considered for the result validation process. In the next step, twelve gully erosion conditioning factors, including topographic, geomorphological, environmental, and hydrologic factors, were selected to estimate gully erosion susceptibility. The area under the ROC curve (AUC) was used to estimate the performance of the models. The results revealed that the RF model had the best performance (AUC = 0.893), followed by the KLR (AUC = 0.825), the CDTree (AUC = 0.808), and the BFTree (AUC = 0.789) models. Overall, the RF model performed significantly better than the others, which may support the application of this method to a transferable susceptibility model in other areas. Therefore, we suggest using the RF, KLR, and CDT models for gully erosion susceptibility mapping in other prone areas to assess their reproducibility. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Zrebar Lake is one of the largest freshwater lakes in Iran and it plays an important role in the ecosystem of the environment, while its desiccation has a negative impact on the surrounded ecosystem. Despite this, this lake provides an interesting recreation setting in terms of ecotourism. The prediction and forecasting of the water level of the lake through simple but practical methods can provide a reliable tool for future lake water resource management. In the present study, we predict the daily water level of Zrebar Lake in Iran through well-known decision tree-based algorithms, including the M5 pruned (M5P), random forest (RF), random tree (RT) and reduced error pruning tree (REPT). We used five different water input combinations to find the most effective one. For our modeling, we chose 70% of the dataset for training (from 2011 to 2015) and 30% for model evaluation (from 2015 to 2017). We evaluated the models' performances using different quantitative (root mean square error (RMSE), mean absolute error (MAE), coefficient of determination (R2), percent bias (PBIAS) and ratio of the root mean square error to the standard deviation of measured data (RSR)) and visual frameworks (Taylor diagram and box plot). Our results showed that water level with a one-day lag time had the highest effect on the result and, by increasing the lag time, its effect on the result was decreased. This result indicated that all the developed models had a good prediction capability, but the M5P model outperformed the others, followed by RF and RT equally and then REPT. Our results showed that these algorithms can predict water level accurately only with a one-day lag time in water level as an input and they are cost-effective tools for future predictions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Predictive capability of landslide susceptibilities is assumed to be varied with different sampling techniques, such as (a) the landslide scarp centroid, (b) centroid of landslide body, (c) samples of the scrap region representing the scarp polygon, and (d) samples of the landslide body representing the entire landslide body. However, new advancements in statistical and machine learning algorithms continuously being updated the landslide susceptibility paradigm. This paper explores the predictive performance power of different sampling techniques in landslide susceptibility mapping in the wake of increased usage of artificial intelligence. We used logistic regression (LR), neural network (NNET), and deep learning neural network (DNN) model for testing and validation of the models. The tests were applied to the 2018 Hokkaido Earthquake affected areas using a set of 11 predictor variables (seismic, topographic, and hydrological). We found that the prediction rates are inconsequential with the DNN model irrespective of the sampling technique (AUC: 0.904 – 0.919). Whereas, testing with LR (AUC: 0.825 – 0.785) and NNET (AUC: 0.882 – 0.858) produces larger differences in the accuracies between the four datasets. Nonetheless, the highest success rates were obtained for samples within the landslide scarp area. The analogy was then validated with a published landslide inventory from the 2015 Gorkha earthquake. We, therefore, suggest that DNN models as an appropriate technique to increase the predictive performance of landslide susceptibilities if the landslide scarp and body are not characterized properly in an inventory. Unlabelled Image • Constructed a comprehensive inventory for 2018 Hokkaido coseismic landslides. • Four different sampling techniques were tested for the predictive performance of LSM. • DNN shows that different sampling strategies are less consequential in LSM. • Applicability of results is validated with the 2015 Gorkha landslide cases. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Dust storms are believed to play an essential role in many climatological, geochemical, and environmental processes. This atmospheric phenomenon can have a significant negative impact on public health and significantly disturb natural ecosystems. Identifying dust-source areas is thus a fundamental task to control the effects of this hazard. This study is the first attempt to identify dust source areas using hybridized machine-learning algorithms. Each hybridized model, designed as an intelligent system, consists of an adaptive neuro-fuzzy inference system (ANFIS), integrated with a combination of metaheuristic optimization algorithms: the bat algorithm (BA), cultural algorithm (CA), and differential evolution (DE). The data acquired from two key sources – the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) Deep Blue and the Ozone Monitoring Instrument (OMI) – are incorporated into the hybridized model, along with relevant data from field surveys and dust samples. Goodness-of-fit analyses are performed to evaluate the predictive capability of the hybridized models using different statistical criteria, including the true skill statistic (TSS) and the area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC). The results demonstrate that the hybridized ANFIS-DE model (with AUC = 84.1%, TSS = 0.73) outperforms the other comparative hybridized models tailored for dust-storm prediction. The results provide evidence that the hybridized ANFIS-DE model should be explored as a promising, cost-effective method for efficiently identifying the dust-source areas, with benefits for both public health and natural environments where excessive dust presents significant challenges. • A new framework was developed for identification of dust-sources. • Three novel hybridized ANFIS models were developed: ANFIS-BA, ANFIS-CA, ANFIS-DE. • The hybridized ANFIS-DE model had the highest accuracy (AUC = 84.1%, TSS = 0.73). • All hybridized models outperformed the standalone ANFIS model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study, hybrid integration of MultiBoosting based on two artificial intelligence methods (the radial basis function network (RBFN) and credal decision tree (CDT) models) and geographic information systems (GIS) were used to establish landslide susceptibility maps, which were used to evaluate landslide susceptibility in Nanchuan County, China. First, the landslide inventory map was generated based on previous research results combined with GIS and aerial photos. Then, 298 landslides were identified, and the established dataset was divided into a training dataset (70%, 209 landslides) and a validation dataset (30%, 89 landslides) with ensured randomness, fairness, and symmetry of data segmentation. Sixteen landslide conditioning factors (altitude, profile curvature, plan curvature, slope aspect, slope angle, stream power index (SPI), topographical wetness index (TWI), sediment transport index (STI), distance to rivers, distance to roads, distance to faults, rainfall, NDVI, soil, land use, and lithology) were identified in the study area. Subsequently, the CDT, RBFN, and their ensembles with MultiBoosting (MCDT and MRBFN) were used in ArcGIS to generate the landslide susceptibility maps. The performances of the four landslide susceptibility maps were compared and verified based on the area under the curve (AUC). Finally, the verification results of the AUC evaluation show that the landslide susceptibility mapping generated by the MCDT model had the best performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Floods are some of the most dangerous and most frequent natural disasters occurring in the northern region of Iran. Flooding in this area frequently leads to major urban, financial, anthropogenic, and environmental impacts. Therefore, the development of flood susceptibility maps used to identify flood zones in the catchment is necessary for improved flood management and decision making. The main objective of this study was to evaluate the performance of an Evidential Belief Function (EBF) model, both as an individual model and in combination with Logistic Regression (LR) methods, in preparing flood susceptibility maps for the Haraz Catchment in the Mazandaran Province, Iran. The spatial database created consisted of a flood inventory, altitude, slope angle, plan curvature, Topographic Wetness Index (TWI), Stream Power Index (SPI), distance from river, rainfall, geology, land use, and Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) for the region. After obtaining the required information from various sources, 151 of 211 recorded flooding points were used for model training and preparation of the flood susceptibility maps. For validation, the results of the models were compared to the 60 remaining flooding points. The Receiver Operating Characteristic (ROC) curve was drawn, and the Area Under the Curve (AUC) was calculated to obtain the accuracy of the flood susceptibility maps prepared through success rates (using training data) and prediction rates (using validation data). The AUC results indicated that the EBF, EBF from LR, EBF-LR (enter), and EBF-LR (stepwise) success rates were 94.61%, 67.94%, 86.45%, and 56.31%, respectively, and the prediction rates were 94.55%, 66.41%, 83.19%, and 52.98%, respectively. The results showed that the EBF model had the highest accuracy in predicting flood susceptibility within the catchment, in which 15% of the total areas were located in high and very high susceptibility classes, and 62% were located in low and very low susceptibility classes. These results can be used for the planning and management of areas vulnerable to floods in order to prevent flood-induced damage; the results may also be useful for natural disaster assessment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We used a novel hybrid functional machine learning algorithm to predict the spatial distribution of landslides in the Sarkhoon watershed, Iran. We developed a new ensemble model which is a combination of a functional algorithm, stochastic gradient descent (SGD) and an AdaBoost (AB) Meta classifier namely ABSGD model to predict the landslides. The model incorporates 20 landslide conditioning factors, which we ranked using the least-square support vector machine (LSSVM) technique. For the modeling, we considered 98 landslide locations, of which 70% (79) were used for training and 30% (19) for validation processes. Model validation was performed using sensitivity, specificity, accuracy, the root mean square error (RMSE) and the area under the receiver operatic characteristic (AUC) curve. We also used soft computing benchmark models, including SGD, logistic regression (LR), logistic model tree (LMT) and functional tree (FT) algorithms for model validation and comparison. The selected conditioning factors were significant in landslide occurrence but distance to road was found to be the most important factor. The ABSGD model (AUC= 0.860) outperformed the LR (0.797), SGD (0.776), LMT (0.740) and FT (0.734) models. Our results confirm that the combined use of a functional algorithm and a Meta classifier prevents over-fitting, reduces noise and enhances the power prediction of the individual SGD algorithm for the spatial prediction of landslides. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Adaptive neuro-fuzzy inference system (ANFIS) includes two novel GIS-based ensemble artificial intelligence approaches called imperialistic competitive algorithm (ICA) and firefly algorithm (FA). This combination could result in ANFIS-ICA and ANFIS-FA models, which were applied to flood spatial modelling and its mapping in the Haraz watershed in Northern Province of Mazandaran, Iran. Ten influential factors including slope angle, elevation, stream power index (SPI), curvature, topographic wetness index (TWI), lithology, rainfall, land use, stream density, and the distance to river were selected for flood modelling. The validity of the models was assessed using statistical error-indices (RMSE and MSE), statistical tests (Friedman and Wilcoxon signed-rank tests), and the area under the curve (AUC) of success. The prediction accuracy of the models was compared to some new state-of-the-art sophisticated machine learning techniques that had previously been successfully tested in the study area. The results confirmed the goodness of fit and appropriate prediction accuracy of the two ensemble models. However, the ANFIS-ICA model (AUC = 0.947) had a better performance in comparison to the Bagging-LMT (AUC = 0.940), BLR (AUC = 0.936), LMT (AUC = 0.934), ANFIS-FA (AUC = 0.917), LR (AUC = 0.885) and RF (AUC = 0.806) models. Therefore, the ANFIS-ICA model can be introduced as a promising method for the sustainable management of flood-prone areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]