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Journal of Desert Research ›› 2022, Vol. 42 ›› Issue (1): 196-210.DOI: 10.7522/j.issn.1000-694X.2021.00210

Previous Articles    

A comparative study of machine learning and statistical models in climate downscaling in the Shiyang River Basin

Yulai Gong1,2(), Shaoxiu Ma1(), Weiqi Liu1,2   

  1. 1.Key Laboratory of Desert and Desertification,Northwest Institute of Eco-Environment and Resources,Chinese Academy of Sciences,Lanzhou 730000,China
    2.University of Chinese Academy of Sciences,Beijing 100049,China
  • Received:2021-11-15 Revised:2021-12-23 Online:2022-01-20 Published:2022-01-28
  • Contact: Shaoxiu Ma

Abstract:

High-resolution climate data are an important data source for studying the impacts of climate change on agriculture, ecology and hydrology. The Shiyang River Basin has diverse land use types and significant elevation changes, which is suitable for studying the applicability of downscaling models. In this study, two traditional statistical downscaling models and four machine learning models were selected and combined with two standardized methods to compare the downscaling of temperature and precipitation at four sites in the Shiyang River Basin to explore the optimal downscaling model for the region. The results show that the machine learning models have better downscaling capability than the traditional statistical models. The ensemble of multi-model gives stable downscaling results with high accuracy. The correlation coefficients of 0.98 (exceeding the 99% confidence level) for temperature results and 0.74 (exceeding the 99% confidence level) for precipitation results at each site indicate that the models screened in this study can achieve better downscaling and can be used to generate future climate scenario data for the region, providing reliable climate data for climate change related studies.

Key words: statistical downscaling, machine learning, climate change

CLC Number: