Applying machine learning algorithms in spatial piping erosion
susceptibility in Zarandeieh watershed, Central Iran
Abstract
Soil erosion is threatening land sustainability. Piping erosion is one
of the land degradation processes that lead to significant landscape and
environmental changes, and request a proper mapping survey. The purpose
of this study is to survey piping erosion susceptibility maps in
Zarandeieh watershed of Markazi province using Random Forest (RF),
Support Vector Machine (SVM), and Bayesian Generalized Linear Models
(Bayesian GLM) machine learning methods. For this purpose, due to the
influence of different physiographic, environmental and soil conditions
on the development and formation of piping, 18 variables were considered
for modeling the piping erosion sensitivity in Zarandieh watershed.
Based on field surveys and aerial photographs, 152 points of piping
erosion were identified in the studied area, 70% of which was used for
modeling, and 30% for model validation. The area under curve (AUC) was
used to evaluate the performance of the models used. The results of the
pipping erosion susceptibility showed that all three RF, SVM and
Bayesian GLM models, have a good performance in the validation stage
such as the AUC shown with values of 0.9 for RF, 0.88 for SVM, and 0.87
for Bayesian GLM. Altitude, PH and Bulk density are the variables that
had the most impact on the pipping erosion sensitivity in the study
area. This result shows that topographical and soil chemical factors are
responsible for the piping distribution in the Zarandieh watershed.