CONTINUOUS MEDIUM-DENSITY FIBERBOARD (MDF) PRODUCTION PRESENTS A PERSISTENT QUALITY-ASSURANCE PROBLEM: DESTRUCTIVE LABORATORY TESTS RETURN RESULTS TOO LATE TO PREVENT OFF-SPECIFICATION MATERIAL FROM ACCUMULATING BEFORE A CORRECTIVE RESPONSE IS POSSIBLE. THIS STUDY DEVELOPS AN INSPECTION-ORIENTED PREDICTIVE QUALITY FRAMEWORK USING INDUSTRIAL DISTRIBUTED CONTROL SYSTEM (DCS) DATA AND AUTOMATED MACHINE LEARNING, TREATING THE PRODUCTION LINE AS AN INTEGRATED NINE-STAGE SYSTEM IN WHICH UPSTREAM PROCESS DISTURBANCES PROPAGATE THROUGH COUPLED THERMOMECHANICAL AND CHEMICAL OPERATIONS BEFORE BECOMING VISIBLE IN FINAL PANEL PROPERTIES. TWO QUALITY TARGETS WERE MODELED ACROSS ULTRALIGHT (UL) AND STANDARD THIN (STD) PANELS USING 3365 PRODUCTION BATCHES AND 327 DCS PROCESS VARIABLES. THE PIPELINE COMBINED RANDOM FOREST IMPUTATION, PEARSON COLLINEARITY FILTERING (|𝑟|≥0.8 ), TARGET-SPECIFIC FEATURE SELECTION, AND STACKED ENSEMBLE REGRESSION VIA H2O AUTOML. THE VERTICAL DENSITY PROFILE INDEX (VSC), A PLANT-REPORTED SCALAR DERIVED FROM X-RAY DENSITY PROFILING, WAS PREDICTED ACCURATELY IN BOTH PRODUCT FAMILIES (TEST RMSE: 1.39 AND 1.78, INDEX UNITS FOR UL AND STD RESPECTIVELY), REFLECTING ITS CLOSE COUPLING TO DRYING STABILITY, RESIN DOSING, AND THERMAL CONDITIONS. INTERNAL BOND STRENGTH (IB) WAS HARDER TO PREDICT, ESPECIALLY FOR THIN STD PANELS (TEST RMSE: 78.93 KPA VS. 27.41 KPA FOR UL), AS CORE-LAYER BONDING MECHANISMS ARE ONLY INDIRECTLY OBSERVABLE THROUGH STANDARD DCS INSTRUMENTATION. MODEL-AGNOSTIC FEATURE IMPORTANCE RANKINGS WERE PHYSICALLY COHERENT ACROSS BOTH PRODUCT FAMILIES, WITH DOMINANT PREDICTORS CONCENTRATED IN DRYING, RESIN APPLICATION, FORMING, AND HOT PRESSING, CONSISTENT WITH THE COUPLED-SUBSYSTEM NATURE OF MDF QUALITY FORMATION. THE HISTORICAL DATASET WAS DOMINATED BY ACCEPTABLE AND OVER-QUALITY IB PRODUCTION, WHICH PRECLUDED CONFORMITY CLASSIFICATION AND SAMPLING-REDUCTION ANALYSIS; A PROSPECTIVE DATASET WITH NEAR-THRESHOLD OBSERVATIONS IS REQUIRED FOR THOSE EVA

ESTIMATING VERTICAL HYDRAULIC CONDUCTIVITY (KV) IN SEMI-ARID BASINS IS CHALLENGING BECAUSE LITHOLOGICAL HETEROGENEITY LIMITS THE REPRESENTATIVENESS OF SPARSE HYDRAULIC MEASUREMENTS. THIS STUDY EVALUATES A SURFACE-BASED SEISMOELECTRIC WORKFLOW FOR INFERRING DEPTH-RESOLVED K V PROFILES WITHOUT USING DRILLING INFORMATION DURING MODEL DEVELOPMENT. BOREHOLE DATA WERE RESERVED FOR EXTERNAL VALIDATION. THE WORKFLOW INTEGRATES FIELD ACQUISITION, GEOSPATIAL DATA SYNTHESIS, SIGNAL CONDITIONING, PHYSICALLY GUIDED FEATURE ENGINEERING, SUPERVISED REGRESSION BENCHMARKING, AND HYDROGEOLOGICAL EXPERT APPRAISAL. ITS MAIN CONTRIBUTION IS A DRILLING-INDEPENDENT MODELING STRATEGY THAT TRANSLATES SURFACE SEISMOELECTRIC ATTRIBUTES INTO VERTICAL K V PROFILES. THIS PROVIDES PRE-DRILLING INFORMATION FOR WELL SITING, SCREEN-INTERVAL DESIGN, AND PLANNING OF DRILLING AND COMPLETION COSTS. A HIGH-DENSITY SURVEY WAS CONDUCTED IN THE ÑUBLE REGION OF CENTRAL CHILE USING A DUAL-CHANNEL SEISMOELECTRIC SYSTEM WITH INVESTIGATION DEPTHS OF UP TO 200 M. MORE THAN 500 GEOREFERENCED STATIONS WERE ACQUIRED. SEISMOELECTRIC ATTRIBUTES DERIVED FROM THE DUAL-CHANNEL RESPONSE, TOGETHER WITH TOPOGRAPHIC DESCRIPTORS, WERE USED TO TRAIN AND COMPARE MULTIPLE REGRESSION MODELS. COMPARED WITH A BASELINE CONFIGURATION BASED ONLY ON RAW VOLTAGE AND DEPTH, THE AUGMENTED MODEL SHOWED STRONGER CROSS-VALIDATED PERFORMANCE. THE COEFFICIENT OF DETERMINATION INCREASED FROM R 2 = 0.711 TO R 2 = 0.968 , RMSE DECREASED FROM 3.534 TO 1.305 M/D, AND MAE DECREASED FROM 1.368 TO 0.546 M/D. THE PREDICTED K V PROFILES BETTER PRESERVED PERSISTENT HIGH- AND LOW-CONDUCTIVITY INTERVALS AND ABRUPT VERTICAL TRANSITIONS THAN THE BASELINE MODEL. THEY WERE ALSO CONSISTENT WITH INDEPENDENT LITHOSTRATIGRAPHIC EVIDENCE AND POST-DRILLING YIELD VERIFICATION AT THE VALIDATION SITE. PROFILE-LEVEL SMOOTHING WITH SAVITZKY–GOLAY AND WAVELET FILTERS IMPROVED VISUAL CONTINUITY WHILE PRESERVING THE DOMINANT CONDUCTIVITY CONTRASTS. THESE RESULTS