A Self-adaptive differential evolutionary extreme learning machine (SaDE-ELM): a novel approach to blast-induced ground vibration prediction

Blast-induced ground vibration is still an adverse impact of blasting in civil and mining engineering projects that need much consideration and attention. This study proposes the use of Self-Adaptive Differential Evolutionary Extreme Learning Machine (SaDE-ELM) for the prediction of ground vibration due to blasting using 210 blasting data points from an open pit mine in Ghana. To ascertain the predictive performance of the proposed SaDE-ELM approach, several artificial intelligence and empirical approaches were developed for comparative purposes. The performances of various developed models were assessed using model performance indicators of mean squared error (MSE), Nash–Sutcliffe Efficiency Index (NSEI) and correlation coefficient (R). Furthermore, the Bayesian Information Criterion (BIC) was applied to select the best performing approach. The obtained prediction results based on the performance indicators showed that the SaDE-ELM outperformed all the competing models as it had the lowest MSE value of 0.01942, respectively. The SaDE-ELM also achieved the highest R and NSEI values of 0.8711 and 0.7537, respectively. The other artificial intelligent approaches had MSE, R and NSEI in the ranges of (0.02166–0.03006), (0.8012–0.8537) and (0.6188–0.7254), respectively. The empirical approaches performed poorly relative to the artificial intelligence approaches by having had MSE, R and NSEI in the ranges of (0.03419–0.06587), (0.7466–0.7833) and (0.1649–0.5665), respectively. The prediction superiority of SaDE-ELM was confirmed when it is achieved the lowest BIC value of − 293.40. Therefore, the proposed SaDE-ELM has demonstrated great potential to be used for on-site prediction, control and management of blast-induced ground vibration to prevent unwanted effects on the environment.