Applying Fuzzy Inference and Machine Learning Methods for Prediction with a Small Dataset: A Case Study for Predicting the Consequences of Oil Spills on a Ground Environment

Abstract

Applying machine learning (ML) and fuzzy inference systems (FIS) requires large datasets to obtain more accurate predictions. However, in the cases of oil spills on ground environments, only small datasets are available. Therefore, this research aims to assess the suitability of ML techniques and FIS for the prediction of the consequences of oil spills on ground environments using small datasets. Consequently, we present a hybrid approach for assessing the suitability of ML (Linear Regression, Decision Trees, Support Vector Regression, Ensembles, and Gaussian Process Regression) and the adaptive neural fuzzy inference system (ANFIS) for predicting the consequences of oil spills with a small dataset. This paper proposes enlarging the initial small dataset of an oil spill on a ground environment by using the synthetic data generated by applying a mathematical model. ML techniques and ANFIS were tested with the same generated synthetic datasets to assess the proposed approach. The proposed ANFIS-based approach shows significant performance and sufficient efficiency for predicting the consequences of oil spills on ground environments with a smaller dataset than the applied ML techniques. The main finding of this paper indicates that FIS is suitable for prediction with a small dataset and provides sufficiently accurate prediction results.