Time Series Forecasting using Diffusion Model in Case Water Quality of Chao Phraya River

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Woraphon Lilakiatsakun
Thanapol Phungtua-eng
Werachart Muttitanon
Saowakhon Nookhao

Abstract

Time series forecasting is a fundamental task for predicting future values in order to understand underlying behavior. Numerous forecasting models rely on learning patterns from historical observations. However, these models face limitations when time series data exhibit inherent uncertainty, multi-modality (i.e., multiple plausible outcomes), abrupt regime changes, or complex noise. Recently, an alternative solution has emerged in which models aim to approximate the distribution of possible future outcomes. One such solution is the use of Denoising Diffusion Probabilistic Models (Diffusion Models), which offer a promising framework by learning a generative process that models complex data distributions in a probabilistic and iterative manner. This capability enables the model to effectively capture uncertainty and multi-modality in time series forecasting. In this study, we implement a Diffusion Model for time series forecasting. We conduct an evaluation on a real-world case study involving water quality in the Chao Phraya River. The results demonstrate that the Diffusion Model outperforms classical techniques such as Long Short-Term Memory (LSTM) in time series forecasting.

Article Details

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Research Articles

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