Today we continue our conversation from episode 1 on Wetland Policy Changes, and we end with Q&A from the audience.
From host Jeremy Schewe, Chief Scientific Officer at Ecobot:
As an ecologist conducting wetlands delineations, threatened & endangered species surveys, and baseline ecological inventories for over 17 years around the world, I have been able to avoid the rise of tech for many years more than people in most other professions, due to the lack of quality tools available to environmental scientists. It is the 21st century, however, and the wheel of innovation is rolling through every profession, including earth sciences.
Today, we discuss how it is essential that tech be simple, intuitive, and shaped by scientists. We need technology that wraps and enhances our existing methodologies and protocols. Our shared vision as scientists is that good technology should be almost invisible and is not simply a transference of inefficiency from one process to another. The wrong kind of technology just adds to the stresses of balancing conservation and monitoring with permitting and state and federal changes in the legal jurisdiction of water bodies.
Data collection and analysis are the foundation for the creation of knowledge, and knowledge leads to the protection of our natural resources while enabling economic progress. The right kind of technology gets out of the scientist’s way and allows for a greater percentage of attention and focus on the creation of this critical knowledge. In this webinar series, we discuss technology trends in the wetland science community from GPS collectors, field equipment, drones, data collection applications, digitization of the regulatory review process, with the goal-setting a high bar of expectations for new technologies that are becoming part of our everyday workflows.
Featured on the episode:
- Daniel Martin, Consultant/Project Manager, Esri
- Daniel DeJoode, PhD, Wetland Scientist, Braun Intertec Corporation
- Victoria Colangelo, CEO, The Mitigation Banking Group, Inc.
- Jeffrey Pearson, Geographer, Esri
- Corinna Photos, PWS, Senior Biologist, Wood
Topics:
- Impact of the Navigable Water Protection Rule to the environmental consulting and engineering industry
- Affect of USACE Nationwide Permit changes
- NEPA rollbacks ripple effect on natural resources
- Hurdles of the wetland mitigation industry in respect to recent changes in water policy and protection
- Wetland science technology’s agile response to policy changes
- Efficiency of the new data ecosystem for wetland science The Ecobot Podcast is edited and produced by Earfluence.
