Groundwater potential maps are one of the most important tools for the management of groundwater storage resources. In this study, we proposed four ensemble soft computing models based on logistic regression (LR) combined with the dagging (DLR), bagging (BLR), random subspace (RSSLR), and cascade generalization (CGLR) ensemble techniques for groundwater potential mapping in Dak Lak Province, Vietnam. A suite of well yield data and twelve geo-environmental factors (aspect, elevation, slope, curvature, Sediment Transport Index, Topographic Wetness Index, flow direction, rainfall, river density, soil, land use, and geology) were used for generating the training and validation datasets required for the building and validation of the models. Based on the area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC) and several other validation methods (negative predictive value, positive predictive value, root mean square error, accuracy, sensitivity, specificity, and Kappa), it was revealed that all four ensemble learning techniques were successful in enhancing the validation performance of the base LR model. The ensemble DLR model (AUC = 0.77) was the most successful model in identifying the groundwater potential zones in the study area, followed by the RSSLR (AUC = 0.744), BLR (AUC = 0.735), CGLR (AUC = 0.715), and single LR model (AUC = 0.71), respectively. The models developed in this study and the resulting potential maps can assist decision-makers in the development of effective adaptive groundwater management plans.

The main aim of this study is to assess groundwater potential of the DakNong province, Vietnam, using an advanced ensemble machine learning model (RABANN) that integrates Artificial Neural Networks (ANN) with RealAdaBoost (RAB) ensemble technique. For this study, twelve conditioning factors and wells yield data was used to create the training and testing datasets for the development and validation of the ensemble RABANN model. Area Under the Receiver Operating Characteristic (ROC) curve (AUC) and several statistical performance measures were used to validate and compare performance of the ensemble RABANN model with the single ANN model. Results of the model studies showed that both models performed well in the training phase of assessing groundwater potential (AUC ≥ 0.7), whereas the ensemble model (AUC = 0.776) outperformed the single ANN model (AUC = 0.699) in the validation phase. This demonstrated that the RAB ensemble technique was successful in improving the performance of the single ANN model. By making minor adjustment in the input data, the ensemble developed model can be adapted for groundwater potential mapping of other regions and countries toward more efficient water resource management. The present study would be helpful in improving the groundwater condition of the area thus in solving water borne disease related health problem of the population.

Groundwater is one of the most important sources of fresh water all over the world, especially in those countries where rainfall is erratic, such as Vietnam. Nowadays, machine learning (ML) models are being used for the assessment of groundwater potential of the region. Credal decision trees (CDT) is one of the ML models which has been used in such studies. In the present study, the performance of the CDT has been improved using various ensemble frameworks such as Bagging, Dagging, Decorate, Multiboost, and Random SubSpace. Based on these methods, five hybrid models, namely BCDT, Dagging-CDT, Decorate-CDT, MBCDT, and RSSCDT, were developed and applied for groundwater potential mapping of DakLak province of Vietnam. Data of 227 groundwater wells of the study area were utilized for the construction and validation of the models. Twelve groundwater potential conditioning factors, namely rainfall, slope, elevation, river density, Sediment Transport Index (STI), curvature, flow direction, aspect, soil, land use, Topographic Wetness Index (TWI), and geology, were considered for the model studies. Various statistical measures, including area under receiver operating characteristic (AUC) curve, were applied to validate and compare the performance of the models. The results show that performance of the hybrid CDT ensemble models MBCDT (AUC = 0.770), BCDT (AUC = 0.731), Dagging-CDT (AUC = 0.763), Decorate-CDT (AUC = 0.750), and RSSCDT (AUC = 0.766) improved significantly in comparison to the single CDT (AUC = 0.722) model. Therefore, these developed hybrid models can be applied for better ground water potential mapping and groundwater resources management of the study area as well as other regions of the world.