The tutorial focuses on a pilot-scale pit lake system in the Athabasca Oil Sands region, Canda where complex physico-chemical interactions and limited process understanding constrain traditional modeling approaches. In such data-scarce and poorly characterized environments, ML offers a practical alternative, capturing hidden patterns and dependencies to support predictive insight and management decisions. Discussion will be focused on;

  • Why existing XAI (e.g., SHAP) can be misleading in correlated multivariate data ?
  • How X-VARS bridges local and global interpretations and remains data-size independent ?
  • How models with similar prediction accuracy can have different reasoning ?

Finally, the talk will focus on the need for ensemble-based explanation and their reproducibility in ML modeling. This approach strengthens trust and transparency in environmental ML applications, enabling defensible AI decisions for scientists and regulators alike.

Written by

Banamali Panigrahi

Banamali Panigrahi is a water quality modeler at WSP, Saskatoon, Canada (Prairies & North, Earth & Environment). Banamali is passionate about bridging machine learning with sustainable solutions for smarter and data-informed environmental decision making.

Start the conversation