Design and Implementation of a Deep Learning Model and Stochastic Model for the Forecasting of the Monthly Lake Water Level

Abstract

Freshwater is becoming increasingly vulnerable to pollution due to both climate change and an escalation in water consumption. The management of water resource systems relies heavily on accurately predicting fluctuations in lake water levels. In this study, an artificial neural network (ANN), a deep learning (DL) neural network model, and an autoregressive integrated moving average (ARIMA) model were employed for the water level forecasting of the St. Clair and Ontario Lakes from 1981 to 2021. To develop the models, we utilized the average mutual information and incorporated lag periods of up to 6 months to identify the optimal inputs for the water level assessment in the lakes. The results were compared in terms of the root mean square error (RMSE), coefficient of correlation (r), and mean absolute percentage error (MAPE) and graphical criteria. Upon evaluating the results, it was observed that the error values for the deep learning models were insignificant at the designated stations: Lake St. Clair—0.16606 m < RMSE < 1.0467 m and Lake Ontario—0.0211 m < RMSE < 0.7436 m. The developed deep learning model increased the accuracy of the models by 5% and 3.5% for Lake St. Clair and Lake Ontario, respectively. Moreover, the violin plot of the deep learning model for each lake was most similar to the violin plot of the observed data. Hence, the deep learning model outperformed the ANN and ARIMA model in each lake.