S-SIRUS: an explainability algorithm for spatial regression Random Forest

Fuente: arXiv
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Main Authors: Patelli, Luca, Golini, Natalia, Ignaccolo, Rosaria, Cameletti, Michela
Format: Preprint
Published: 2024
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author Patelli, Luca
Golini, Natalia
Ignaccolo, Rosaria
Cameletti, Michela
author_facet Patelli, Luca
Golini, Natalia
Ignaccolo, Rosaria
Cameletti, Michela
contents Random Forest (RF) is a widely used machine learning algorithm known for its flexibility, user-friendliness, and high predictive performance across various domains. However, it is non-interpretable. This can limit its usefulness in applied sciences, where understanding the relationships between predictors and response variable is crucial from a decision-making perspective. In the literature, several methods have been proposed to explain RF, but none of them addresses the challenge of explaining RF in the context of spatially dependent data. Therefore, this work aims to explain regression RF in the case of spatially dependent data by extracting a compact and simple list of rules. In this respect, we propose S-SIRUS, a spatial extension of SIRUS, the latter being a well-established regression rule algorithm able to extract a stable and short list of rules from the classical regression RF algorithm. A simulation study was conducted to evaluate the explainability capability of the proposed S-SIRUS, in comparison to SIRUS, by considering different levels of spatial dependence among the data. The results suggest that S-SIRUS exhibits a higher test predictive accuracy than SIRUS when spatial correlation is present. Moreover, for higher levels of spatial correlation, S-SIRUS produces a shorter list of rules, easing the explanation of the mechanism behind the predictions.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2408_05537
institution arXiv
publishDate 2024
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle S-SIRUS: an explainability algorithm for spatial regression Random Forest
Patelli, Luca
Golini, Natalia
Ignaccolo, Rosaria
Cameletti, Michela
Machine Learning
Random Forest (RF) is a widely used machine learning algorithm known for its flexibility, user-friendliness, and high predictive performance across various domains. However, it is non-interpretable. This can limit its usefulness in applied sciences, where understanding the relationships between predictors and response variable is crucial from a decision-making perspective. In the literature, several methods have been proposed to explain RF, but none of them addresses the challenge of explaining RF in the context of spatially dependent data. Therefore, this work aims to explain regression RF in the case of spatially dependent data by extracting a compact and simple list of rules. In this respect, we propose S-SIRUS, a spatial extension of SIRUS, the latter being a well-established regression rule algorithm able to extract a stable and short list of rules from the classical regression RF algorithm. A simulation study was conducted to evaluate the explainability capability of the proposed S-SIRUS, in comparison to SIRUS, by considering different levels of spatial dependence among the data. The results suggest that S-SIRUS exhibits a higher test predictive accuracy than SIRUS when spatial correlation is present. Moreover, for higher levels of spatial correlation, S-SIRUS produces a shorter list of rules, easing the explanation of the mechanism behind the predictions.
title S-SIRUS: an explainability algorithm for spatial regression Random Forest
topic Machine Learning
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2408.05537