Spatio-temporal Bayes Regression with INLA in
Statistical Downscaling Modeling for Estimating West
Java Rainfall
Ro’fah Nur Rachmawati
1,2
, Anik Djuraidah
1*
, Aji Hamim Wigena
1
, I Wayan Mangku
3
{
*)
Corresponding author: anikdjuraidah@apps.ipb.ac.id }
Statistics Department, IPB University, Bogor, Indonesia 16680
1
Statistics Department, School of Computer Science, Bina Nusantara University, Jakarta, Indonesia
11480
2
Mathematics Department, IPB University, Bogor, Indonesia 16680
3
Abstract.Statistical downscaling (SD) is one of the techniques used in climate modeling
by utilizing global scale data using general circulation models (GCM) output data, to
obtain conclusions on a local scale such as rainfall. Currently, the inference of Bayes
spatio-temporal regression in SD modeling is still used MCMC method, with
convergence issue problem and very high demands for computational resources. When
the spatio-temporal model is complex and designed hierarchically, MCMC computing
becomes inefficient. Therefore, this paper aims to predict observed and unobserved
locations, using Bayes spatio-temporal model with efficient, fast, accurate and developed
inference method, INLA. The response variable is monthly rainfall at 57 locations in
West Java, Indonesia, observed from 1981-2017 and assumed to have normal
distribution. The explanatory variables consist of spatial and temporal random effects and
fixed effects of monthly precipitation GCM with 8x5 dimensions (40 variables) and the
dimension is reduced with PCA. Our model successfully predicts monthly rainfall for
observed and unobserved locations using spatial characteristics from nearly locations,
and primely capture the monthly rainfall trends in annually cyclic behavior. The
correlations between predict and real rainfall data is about 0.8 (for 0.65, 0.8 quantile) and
0.7 (for 0.95, 0.975 high quantile) with RMSEP is 151 for low (0.65) quantile. At the end
of the research results, we present the regional rainfall for the entire West Java region.
The eastern part near the central Java border has higher rainfall, as well as the west,
while the north and south have lower rainfall.
Keywords: Bayes spatio-temporal, INLA (integrated nested Laplace approximation),
PCA (principal component analysis), statistical downscaling, West Java rainfall region.
1 Introduction
Statistical downscaling (SD) is a statistical technique used to conduct future projections
from responses in the form of local climate data, with explanatory variables using global
circulation model (GCM) output data. Several recent studies in various countries actively used
GCM for SD modeling including [12] who studied present and future climate projections in
China and [2] used SD modeling to achieve projections of precipitation extremes in New
England. In GCM data, global climate variables are simulated on each grid for each
atmosphere layer, therefore GCM are in the form of grids, rough spatial resolution, large
ICSA 2019, August 02-03, Bogor, Indonesia
Copyright © 2020 EAI
DOI 10.4108/eai.2-8-2019.2290346