Improvement of drought forecasting by means of various machine learning algorithms and wavelet transformation

Abstract Drought, which is defined as a decrease in average rainfall amounts, is one of the most insidious natural disasters. When it starts, people may not be aware of it, which is why droughts are difficult to monitor. Scientists have long been working to predict and monitor droughts. For this purpose, they have developed many methods, such as drought indices, one of which is the Standardized Precipitation Index (SPI). In this study, SPI was used to detect droughts, and machine learning algorithms, including support vector machines (SVM), artificial neural networks, random forest, and decision tree, were used to predict droughts. In addition, 3 different statistical criteria, which are correlation coefficient ( r ), root mean square error (RMSE), and Nash–Sutcliffe efficiency (NSE), were used to investigate model performance values. The wavelet transform (WT) was also applied to improve model performance. One of the areas most impacted by droughts in Turkey is the Konya Closed Basin, which is geographically positioned in the center of the country and is among the top grain-producing regions in Turkey. The Apa Dam is one of the most significant water resources in the area. It provides water to many fertile fields in its vicinity and is affected by droughts which is why it was selected as a study area. Meteorological data, such as monthly precipitation, that could represent the region were obtained between 1955 and 2020 from the general directorate of state water works and the general directorate of meteorology. According to the findings, the M04 model, whose input structure was developed using SPI, various time steps, data delayed up to 5 months, and monthly precipitation data from the preceding month (time t − 1), produced the best results out of all the models examined using machine learning algorithms. Among machine learning algorithms, SVM has achieved the most successful results not only before applying WT but also after WT. The best results were obtained from M04, in which SVM with WT was used (NSE = 0.9942, RMSE = 0.0764, R = 0.9971).