AGA-SVR-based selection of feature subsets and optimization of parameter in regional soil salinization monitoring

ABSTRACT

Salinization is a major eco-environmental threat in arid and semi-arid regions. Machine learning combined with salinization-related factors extracted from satellite images and Digital Elevation Model (DEM) data to monitor salinization is popular in recent years. The hyper-parameters referring to the parameters prior to fitting the model to the data and the features referring to the factors used for model establishment are vital to modelling accuracy, while the optimization of the above two was not given enough attention. In this study, we proposed a novel approach for simultaneously identifying the input features and hyper-parameters of Support Vector Regression (SVR) based on Adaptive Genetic Algorithm (AGA) for quantitative assessment of salinization in Weigan-Kuqa river delta oasis (Wei-Ku oasis), Sangong River Basin, and Qitai oasis of Xinjiang. First, a total of 41 salinization-related factors of 7 categories were extracted from Landsat 5 TM and DEM data. In each sub-region, the Pearson’s correlation analysis was developed between Soil Salt Content (SSC) and salinization-related factors, and the factors significantly correlated with SSC were arranged in descending order of absolute correlation coefficient to form the Candidate Feature Variables (CFVs). The ration of Coefficient of Determination (R²) and Root Mean Square Error (RMSE) multiplied by 1000 was considered as the fitness function of Genetic Algorithm (GA) and AGA. The CFVs and hyper-parameters were combined together and binary coded, then brought into the AGA and GA for simultaneous feature selection and hyper-parameters optimization of SVR, and established salinization monitoring models (AGA-SVR, GA-SVR). In order to highlight the importance of identifying the input features and hyper-parameter to modelling accuracy, the GS-SVR with all the CFVs as input was established using Grid Search (GS) algorithm to optimize the hyper-parameters. Finally, the salinization maps predicted by three models were compared. The results showed that the sensitivity of salinization-related factors to SSC varied with regions, and 25, 16, 24 salinization-related factors were selected as CFVs in Wei-Ku oasis, Sangong River Basin, and Qitai oasis, respectively. Compared with GS-SVR, the GA-SVR and AGA-SVR got more accurate salinization monitoring with fewer features as input, and fitness generated by AGA-SVR increased by 25.968% in Wei-Ku oasis, 25.159% in Sangong River Basin, 27.568% in Qitai oasis, respectively. Both nature and human factors lead to salinization. The difference of Land Surface Temperature (LST) was the main contributor of different salinization between Wei-Ku oasis of southern Xinjiang and the other two sub-regions of northern Xinjiang. The differences in soil texture, irrigation methods, and livestock carrying capacity were the main factors resulting in differences of salinization in Qitai oasis and Sangong River Basin. Our study shows that the proposed approach can provide technical support for accurate salinization monitoring.

Acknowledgements

This study has obtained technical support from the National Platform for Scientific Data Sharing of Earth System (www.geodata.cn), the Scientific Data Centre of Xinjiang and Central Asia (midasia.data.ac.cn), the Centre for Ecology and Environment Research of Central Asia of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the Supercomputer Centre of the Xinjiang Institute of Ecology and Geography.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China under Grant [NSFC-41877012]; The team project of the Chinese Academy of Sciences under Grantunder Grant [2018-YDYLTD-002]; Characteristic Institutes Main Service Program (Program1, Topic3) of CAS [TSS-2015-014-FW-1-3];Characteristic Institutes Main Service Program (Program1, Topic3）of CAS [TSS-2015-014-FW-1-3].