Published
2023-12-19
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Prediction of soil erosion by random forest: case study of the rio grande basin, Antioquia

DOI: https://doi.org/10.22490/21456453.6755
Section
Área Ambiental

Categories

Laura Isabel Arango Carvajal Universidad Nacional de Colombia

Contextualization: Currently, the knowledge of natural phenomena associated with the preservation of the systems is of interest both for researchers in the natural sciences, and for the environmental authorities in charge of decision-making on resource management. In this sense, work has been carried out on the interpretation and prediction of different physical phenomena such as erosion, to create scenarios that allow strengthening the response criteria for the conservation of the natural capital of the soil.

Knowledge gap: The ability to predict the phenomenon of erosion is limited on many occasions due to the quantity and variability of the parameters and variables that are related to erosion; besides that, in many cases, a high computational processing is required to achieve that they are associated with each other.

Purpose: The aim is to implement a machine learning model as an alternative tool for complex modeling and erosion prediction.

Methodology: In this study, a model is developed from the training of the non-parametric Random Forest method through supervised learning, to predict erosion occurrences in the Rio Grande basin, considering the variables that have previously been used in other methods to model this phenomenon.

Results and conclusions: The results showed a capacity to predict erosion in the basin with an approximate precision of 77%, so this method can be applied to obtain fast and reliable predictions. In addition, it was found that the variables used in the RUSLE model mainly explain the occurrence or not of erosion. The great importance of the temperature variable introduced in the model is also surprising.