Severity-Aware Drift Adaptation for Cost-Efficient Model Maintenance

Objectives: This paper introduces an adaptive learning framework for handling concept drift in data by dynamically adjusting model updates based on the severity of detected drift. Methods: The proposed method combines multiple statistical measures to quantify distributional changes between recent and historical data windows. The resulting severity score drives a three-tier adaptation policy: minor drift is ignored, moderate drift triggers incremental model updates, and severe drift initiates full model retraining. Results: This approach balances stability and adaptability, reducing unnecessary computation while preserving model accuracy. The framework is applicable to both single-model and ensemble-based systems, offering a flexible and efficient solution for real-time drift management. Also, different transformation methods were reviewed, and quantile transformation was tested. By applying a quantile transformation, the Kolmogorov–Smirnov (KS) statistic decreased from 0.0559 to 0.0072, demonstrating effective drift adaptation.