Cloud-based neuro-fuzzy hydro-climatic model for water quality assessment under uncertainty and sensitivity

River water quality is a function of various bio-physicochemical parameters which can be aggregated for calculating the Water Quality Index (WQI). However, it is challenging to model the nonlinearity and uncertain behavior of these parameters. When data is deficient and noisy, it creates missing and conflicting parameters within their complex inter-relationships. It is also essential to model how climatic variations and river discharge affect water quality. The present study proposes a cloud-based efficient and resourceful machine learning (ML) modeling framework using an artificial neural network (ANN), adaptive neuro-fuzzy inference system (ANFIS), and advanced particle swarm optimization (PSO). The framework assesses the sensitivity of five critical water quality parameters namely biochemical oxygen demand (BOD), dissolved oxygen (DO), pH, temperature, and total coliform toward WQI of the River Ganges in India. Monthly datasets of these parameters, river flow, and climate components (rainfall and temperature) for a nine-year (2011-2019) period have been used to build the models. We also propose collecting the data by placing various monitoring sensors in the river and sending the data to the cloud for analysis. This helps in continuous monitoring and analysis. Results indicate that ANN and ANFIS capture the nonlinearity in the relationship among water quality parameters with a root mean square error (RMSE) of 7.5 × 10^-7 (0.002%) and 1.02 × 10^-5 (0.029%), respectively, while the combined ANN-PSO model gives normalized mean square error (NMSE) of 0.0024. The study demonstrates the role of cloud-based machine learning in developing watershed protection and restoration strategies by analyzing the sensitivity of individual water quality parameters while predicting water quality under changing climate and river discharge.