Flood-prone area mapping using a synergistic approach with swarm intelligence and gradient boosting algorithms

Abstract Accurate flood susceptibility mapping (FSM) is a control approach to flood management. This research introduces a novel approach to increase the accuracy of FSM by optimizing the CatBoost algorithm with two swarm-based metaheuristic algorithms: the Zebra optimization algorithm (ZOA) and the...

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Main Authors: Seyed Vahid Razavi-Termeh, Abolghasem Sadeghi-Niaraki, Sani I. Abba, Jamil Hussain, Soo-Mi Choi
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Nature Portfolio 2025-07-01
Series:Scientific Reports
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Online Access:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-025-12022-6
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author Seyed Vahid Razavi-Termeh
Abolghasem Sadeghi-Niaraki
Sani I. Abba
Jamil Hussain
Soo-Mi Choi
author_facet Seyed Vahid Razavi-Termeh
Abolghasem Sadeghi-Niaraki
Sani I. Abba
Jamil Hussain
Soo-Mi Choi
author_sort Seyed Vahid Razavi-Termeh
collection DOAJ
description Abstract Accurate flood susceptibility mapping (FSM) is a control approach to flood management. This research introduces a novel approach to increase the accuracy of FSM by optimizing the CatBoost algorithm with two swarm-based metaheuristic algorithms: the Zebra optimization algorithm (ZOA) and the Whale optimization algorithm (WOA). This research addresses the critical gap in determining optimal hyperparameters for machine learning models in FSM. Existing studies often ignore the importance of hyperparameter tuning in FSM, leading to suboptimal model performance. This research seeks to enhance and improve the accuracy of FSM in Shushtar County, located in southwest Iran, by utilizing the CatBoost-WOA and CatBoost-ZOA algorithms. In this research, FSM was conducted by using 13 parameters that affect floods and flood occurrence points as inputs. The evaluation results of the flood susceptibility maps showed an accuracy of 84.2% for CatBoost, 85% for CatBoost-WOA, and 87.2% for CatBoost-ZOA. This represents a 3.0% absolute improvement in accuracy with the ZOA-optimized model over the non-optimized CatBoost. The results of this study demonstrated that integrating swarm-based methods with machine learning boosting algorithms significantly enhanced FSM accuracy. The results of this study, as a non-structural approach, can help managers and decision-makers in flood management and control.
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spelling doaj-art-0638c3ff800c44729071604ece03eade2025-08-20T03:45:53ZengNature PortfolioScientific Reports2045-23222025-07-0115112010.1038/s41598-025-12022-6Flood-prone area mapping using a synergistic approach with swarm intelligence and gradient boosting algorithmsSeyed Vahid Razavi-Termeh0Abolghasem Sadeghi-Niaraki1Sani I. Abba2Jamil Hussain3Soo-Mi Choi4Department of Computer Science and Engineering and Convergence Engineering for Intelligent Drone, XR Research Center, Sejong UniversityDepartment of Computer Science and Engineering and Convergence Engineering for Intelligent Drone, XR Research Center, Sejong UniversityDepartment of Civil Engineering, Prince Mohammad Bin Fahd UniversityDepartment of Artificial Intelligence Data Science, Sejong UniversityDepartment of Computer Science and Engineering and Convergence Engineering for Intelligent Drone, XR Research Center, Sejong UniversityAbstract Accurate flood susceptibility mapping (FSM) is a control approach to flood management. This research introduces a novel approach to increase the accuracy of FSM by optimizing the CatBoost algorithm with two swarm-based metaheuristic algorithms: the Zebra optimization algorithm (ZOA) and the Whale optimization algorithm (WOA). This research addresses the critical gap in determining optimal hyperparameters for machine learning models in FSM. Existing studies often ignore the importance of hyperparameter tuning in FSM, leading to suboptimal model performance. This research seeks to enhance and improve the accuracy of FSM in Shushtar County, located in southwest Iran, by utilizing the CatBoost-WOA and CatBoost-ZOA algorithms. In this research, FSM was conducted by using 13 parameters that affect floods and flood occurrence points as inputs. The evaluation results of the flood susceptibility maps showed an accuracy of 84.2% for CatBoost, 85% for CatBoost-WOA, and 87.2% for CatBoost-ZOA. This represents a 3.0% absolute improvement in accuracy with the ZOA-optimized model over the non-optimized CatBoost. The results of this study demonstrated that integrating swarm-based methods with machine learning boosting algorithms significantly enhanced FSM accuracy. The results of this study, as a non-structural approach, can help managers and decision-makers in flood management and control.https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-025-12022-6Flood-prone area mappingFlood managementBoosting algorithmSwarm-based metaheuristicsSemi-arid climate
spellingShingle Seyed Vahid Razavi-Termeh
Abolghasem Sadeghi-Niaraki
Sani I. Abba
Jamil Hussain
Soo-Mi Choi
Flood-prone area mapping using a synergistic approach with swarm intelligence and gradient boosting algorithms
Scientific Reports
Flood-prone area mapping
Flood management
Boosting algorithm
Swarm-based metaheuristics
Semi-arid climate
title Flood-prone area mapping using a synergistic approach with swarm intelligence and gradient boosting algorithms
title_full Flood-prone area mapping using a synergistic approach with swarm intelligence and gradient boosting algorithms
title_fullStr Flood-prone area mapping using a synergistic approach with swarm intelligence and gradient boosting algorithms
title_full_unstemmed Flood-prone area mapping using a synergistic approach with swarm intelligence and gradient boosting algorithms
title_short Flood-prone area mapping using a synergistic approach with swarm intelligence and gradient boosting algorithms
title_sort flood prone area mapping using a synergistic approach with swarm intelligence and gradient boosting algorithms
topic Flood-prone area mapping
Flood management
Boosting algorithm
Swarm-based metaheuristics
Semi-arid climate
url https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-025-12022-6
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AT saniiabba floodproneareamappingusingasynergisticapproachwithswarmintelligenceandgradientboostingalgorithms
AT jamilhussain floodproneareamappingusingasynergisticapproachwithswarmintelligenceandgradientboostingalgorithms
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