Combining residual convolutional LSTM with attention mechanisms for spatiotemporal forest cover prediction

Understanding spatiotemporal variations in forest cover is crucial for effective forest resource management. However, existing models often lack accuracy in simultaneously capturing temporal continuity and spatial correlation. To address this challenge, we developed ResConvLSTM-Att, a novel hybrid model integrating residual neural networks, Convolutional Long Short-Term Memory (ConvLSTM) networks, and attention mechanisms. We evaluated ResConvLSTM-Att against four deep learning models: LSTM, combined convolutional neural network and LSTM (CNN-LSTM), ConvLSTM, and ResConvLSTM for spatiotemporal prediction of forest cover in Tasmania, Australia. ResConvLSTM-Att achieved outstanding prediction performance, with an average root mean square error (RMSE) of 6.9% coverage and an impressive average coefficient of determination of 0.965. Compared with LSTM, CNN-LSTM, ConvLSTM, and ResConvLSTM, ResConvLSTM-Att achieved RMSE reductions of 31.2%, 43.0%, 10.1%, and 6.5%, respectively. Additionally, we quantified the impacts of explanatory variables on forest cover dynamics. Our work demonstrated the effectiveness of ResConvLSTM-Att in spatiotemporal data modelling and prediction.