Data mining as a tool for environmental scientists

Over recent years a huge library of data mining algorithms has been developed to tackle a variety of problems in fields such as medical imaging and network traffic analysis. Many of these techniques are far more flexible than more classical modelling approaches and could be usefully applied to data-rich environmental problems. Certain techniques such as Artificial Neural Networks, Clustering, Case-Based Reasoning and more recently Bayesian Decision Networks have found application in environmental modelling while other methods, for example classification and association rule extraction, have not yet been taken up on any wide scale. We propose that these and other data mining techniques could be usefully applied to difficult problems in the field. This paper introduces several data mining concepts and briefly discusses their application to environmental modelling, where data may be sparse, incomplete, or heterogenous

Modelling the relationship between streamflow and electrical conductivity in Hollin Creek, Southeastern Australia

The relationship between streamfiow q and electrical conductivity k is explored in this paper, using data from Hollin Cave Spring in New South Wales, Australia. A temporal rule extraction algorithm is used to identify frequent patterns in each time series. The frequent patterns are then refined using the concept of profile convexity, and parametrised for compactness of representation, before the coupling between flow and conductivity is examined. Results show that two frequent peak patterns occur in flow and two troughs in electrical conductivity, and that the shapes of all these can be characterised with a single magnitude parameter. The coupling between events in the two series is investigated, and reveals that the depth of k troughs depend heavily on the initial state of k, and more weakly on the magnitude of the flow peak

A data mining approach to simulating farmers' crop choices for integrated water resources management

Water and land resources in Thailand are increasingly under pressure from development. In particular, there are many resource conflicts associated with agricultural production in northern Thailand. Communities in these areas are significantly constraine