Degree Type
Creative Component
Semester of Graduation
Summer 2019
Department
Statistics
First Major Professor
Dr. Jarad Niemi
Degree(s)
Master of Science (MS)
Major(s)
Statistics
Abstract
The main objective of this research is to build an emulator (i.e., surrogate) for the (Water Erosion Prediction Project) WEPP computer model, a soil erosion prediction technology used by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA). The WEPP is a continuous simulation computer program that predicts soil loss and sediment deposition by considering various functional, quantitative and categorical inputs.
The emulator is built using Gaussian processes (GP) with both scalar and functional inputs. Three different GP models: (GP with scalar inputs, GP both scalar and functional inputs and GP with functional inputs) were employed and trained on the WEPP simulated data. Weight and nugget parameters in the covariance matrix of the GP model were estimated by the maximum likelihood method i.e eBayes approach. Particularly, we assumed weight parameters are built on trigonometric basis vectors.
GP model with functional inputs showed the best performance, while it's is the most computationally expensive among three approaches. This model predicted almost the same values as true response values for the inputs from the WEPP simulated training dataset.
Copyright Owner
Kuttubekova, Gulzina
Copyright Year
2019
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
File Format
Recommended Citation
Kuttubekova, Gulzina, "Emulator for Water Erosion Prediction Project computer model using Gaussian Processes with functional inputs" (2019). Creative Components. 325.
https://lib.dr.iastate.edu/creativecomponents/325
Included in
Applied Statistics Commons, Natural Resources and Conservation Commons, Statistical Models Commons