Multilayer perceptron neural network for downscaling rainfall in arid region: A case study of Baluchistan, Pakistan

Downscaling rainfall in an arid region is much challenging compared to wet region due to erratic and infrequent behaviour of rainfall in the arid region. The complexity is further aggregated due to scarcity of data in such regions. A multilayer perceptron (MLP) neural network has been proposed in the present study for the downscaling of rainfall in the data scarce arid region of Baluchistan province of Pakistan, which is considered as one of the most vulnerable areas of Pakistan to climate change. The National Center for Environmental Prediction (NCEP) reanalysis datasets from 20 grid points surrounding the study area were used to select the predictors using principal component analysis. Monthly rainfall data for the time periods 1961-1990 and 1991-2001 were used for the calibration and validation of the MLP model, respectively. The performance of the model was assessed using various statistics including mean, variance, quartiles, root mean square error (RMSE), mean bias error (MBE), coefficient of determination (R (2)) and Nash-Sutcliffe efficiency (NSE). Comparisons of mean monthly time series of observed and downscaled rainfall showed good agreement during both calibration and validation periods, while the downscaling model was found to underpredict rainfall variance in both periods. Other statistical parameters also revealed good agreement between observed and downscaled rainfall during both calibration and validation periods in most of the stations.