Group Method of Data Handling (GMDH) Lithology Identification Based on Wavelet Analysis and Dimensionality Reduction as Well Log Data Pre-Processing Techniques

• Main Authors: Chuanbo Shen, Solomon Asante-Okyere, Yao Yevenyo Ziggah, Liang Wang, Xiangfeng Zhu
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: MDPI AG 2019-04-01
• Series: Energies
• Subjects: group method of data handling; principal component analysis; linear discriminant analysis; wavelet analysis; lithology
• Online Access: https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/12/8/1509

Although the group method of data handling (GMDH) is a self-organizing metaheuristic neural network capable of developing a classification function using influential input variables, the results can be improved by using some pre-processing steps. In this paper, we propose a joint principal component analysis (PCA) and GMDH (PCA-GMDH) classifier method. We investigated well log data pre-processing techniques composed of dimensionality reduction (DR) and wavelet analysis (WA), using the southern basin of the South Yellow Sea as a case study, with the aim of improving the lithology classification accuracy of the GMDH. Our results showed that the dimensionality reduction method, which is composed of PCA and linear discriminant analysis (LDA), minimized the complexity of the classifier by reducing the number of well log suites to the relevant components and factors. On the other hand, the WA decomposed the well log signals into time-frequency wavelets for the GMDH algorithm. Of all the pre-processing methods, only the PCA was able to significantly increase the classification accuracy rate of the GMDH. Finally, the proposed joint PCA-GMDH classifier not only increased the accuracy but also was able to distinguish between all the classes of lithofacies present in the southern basin of the South Yellow Sea.