The research, led by a team at the University of California at Berkeley, used machine learning to more accurately predict which waterways are protected under the Clean Water Act.
The analysis found that Trump’s 2020 rule deregulated large amounts of land and water. The 1,110,000 km2 of streams regulated by this rule are more than all the streams in California, Florida, Illinois, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Texas combined. Such deregulation could have significant environmental consequences, as wetlands provide important benefits such as preventing floods and filtering water.
The researchers also found that the machine learning model they developed could save regulators and developers more than $1 billion a year in permitting costs. This is because the model can quickly and accurately predict the likelihood of a site being regulated, eliminating the need for lengthy and uncertain permitting processes.
Source: Ferra
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