A novel interpretable ozone forecasting approach based on deep learning with masked residual connections

Air pollution is a growing threat, especially in low- and middle-income countries, causing over 4 million premature deaths annually. Ground-level ozone is a major concern, demanding accurate and interpretable prediction systems for effective public health management. However, existing time-series fo...

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Detalhes bibliográficos
Autores: Reina Jiménez, Pablo, Jiménez Navarro, Manuel Jesús, Asencio Cortés, Gualberto, Martínez Álvarez, Francisco, Martínez Ballesteros, María del Mar
Formato: artículo
Estado:Versión publicada
Fecha de publicación:2026
País:España
Recursos:Universidad de Sevilla (US)
Repositorio:idUS. Depósito de Investigación de la Universidad de Sevilla
OAI Identifier:oai:dnet:idus________::3b04845b3eea73dd1c41dd20348a81b3
Acesso em linha:https://hdl.handle.net/11441/185333
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envsoft.2026.106878
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palavra-chave:Time series forecasting
Feature selection
Deep learning
XAI
Descrição
Resumo:Air pollution is a growing threat, especially in low- and middle-income countries, causing over 4 million premature deaths annually. Ground-level ozone is a major concern, demanding accurate and interpretable prediction systems for effective public health management. However, existing time-series forecasting methods struggle to capture both linear and nonlinear dependencies in atmospheric data. This study introduces ResSelNet, a novel Residual Selection Network that integrates masked residual connections and embedded feature selection within a unified deep learning architecture. The model dynamically determines the optimal processing depth for each feature, allowing linear relationships to bypass nonlinear transformations while capturing complex patterns when necessary. Applied to five monitoring stations across Andalusia (Spain), ResSelNet consistently outperformed state-of-the-art baselines, achieving 8%–12% lower RMSE and MAE than LSTM and Transformer models. Beyond accuracy, the framework improves interpretability and robustness, revealing the hierarchical relevance of meteorological and pollutant variables. ResSelNet therefore offers an effective and explainable solution for multi-horizon environmental time-series forecasting.