Precipitation Forecasting in Northern Bangladesh Using a Hybrid Machine Learning Model

Precipitation forecasting is essential for the assessment of several hydrological processes. This study shows that based on a machine learning approach, reliable models for precipitation prediction can be developed. The tropical monsoon-climate northern region of Bangladesh, including the Rangpur and Sylhet division, was chosen as the case study. Two machine learning algorithms were used: M5P and support vector regression. Moreover, a novel hybrid model based on the two algorithms was developed. The performance of prediction models was assessed by means of evaluation metrics and graphical representations. A sensitivity analysis was also carried out to assess the prediction accuracy as the number of exogenous inputs reduces and lag times increases. Overall, the hybrid model M5P-SVR led to the best predictions among used models in this study, with R2 values up to 0.87 and 0.92 for the stations of Rangpur and Sylhet, respectively.