In this week’s episode, host Daniel Raimi talks with Simon Greenhill (PhD candidate at the University of California, Berkeley) and Hannah Druckenmiller (university fellow at Resources for the Future and assistant professor at the California Institute of Technology). Along with other coauthors, Greenhill and Druckenmiller recently published an article in the journal Science that uses a new machine learning model to predict which waterways are regulated under the Clean Water Act according to different definitions of what the Clean Water Act calls “waters of the United States.” Greenhill and Druckenmiller discuss the differences in regulation when considering a broader or narrower interpretation of waters of the United States, along with the implications for wetland protection, clean water, and flood mitigation.

References and recommendations:

“Machine learning predicts which rivers, streams, and wetlands the Clean Water Act regulates” by Simon Greenhill, Hannah Druckenmiller, Sherrie Wang, David A. Keiser, Manuela Girotto, Jason K. Moore, Nobuhiro Yamaguchi, Alberto Todeschini, and Joseph S. Shapiro; https://www.rff.org/publications/journal-articles/machine-learning-predicts-which-rivers-streams-and-wetlands-the-clean-water-act-regulates/

Clean Water Act regulation map; https://simondgreenhill.github.io/wotus-map/

Clean Water Act regulation map explainer video by Simon Greenhill; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jkhz5gVUo2w&ab

“Wetlands, Flooding, and the Clean Water Act” by Charles A. Taylor and Hannah Druckenmiller; https://www.rff.org/publications/working-papers/wetlands-flooding-and-the-clean-water-act/

“The Hungry Tide” by Amitav Ghosh; https://www.harpercollins.com/products/the-hungry-tide-amitav-ghosh

“The High Sierra: A Love Story” by Kim Stanley Robinson; https://www.hachettebookgroup.com/titles/kim-stanley-robinson/the-high-sierra/9780316306812/