The National Association of Wetland Managers (NAWM) offers a Hot Topics Webinar Series that focuses on timely issues and studies such as new and emerging wetland policy and law, innovative tools and technology and state-of-the-art practices. These webinars are advertised through our website, newsletters, social media and emails.
For more information and/or to join our email list for notices about upcoming events, please contact Laura Burchill at laura@nawm.org.
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NAWM Discussion Session: Mapping Wetlands Policy: A Practitioner Discussion on AI, Data, and Decision-Making
Tuesday, September 22, 2026 - 3:00pm - 4:00 pm ET 
Presenters:
- Reed Van Beveren, Deputy Director of Technology, Environmental Policy Innovation Center
- John Paul (JP) Miller, Director of Environmental Strategies, Center for Geospatial Solutions
ABSTRACT
The proposed Wetlands Policy Map initiative would create a first-of-its-kind, open-source platform that uses artificial intelligence and geospatial technology to identify, organize, and map wetland protection policies across federal, state, and local levels. The goal is to enable users to select a location and quickly understand what wetland protections may apply, reducing the need to manually interpret fragmented documents, reconcile rules across jurisdictions, and attempt to apply them to a specific location.
The project is being developed through a partnership among the Environmental Policy Innovation Center (EPIC), Center for Geospatial Solutions (CGS), and the National Association of Wetland Managers (NAWM). The initiative seeks to transform thousands of pages of wetland regulations, statutes, and ordinances into structured, searchable information that can be linked to mapped wetland features and viewed through an interactive decision-support tool.
We invite wetland managers, regulators, policy specialists, GIS professionals, planners, and other interested practitioners to join the conversation and share their perspectives. This discussion is an opportunity to help shape a resource that could improve access to wetland policy information, support better-informed decisions, and strengthen wetland protection efforts nationwide.
BIOS
Reed Van Beveren is the Deputy Director at Environmental Policy Innovation Center (EPIC), Reed oversees advocacy strategies and programmatic cohesion, with specialties in land management, wetlands and artificial intelligence. Prior to joining EPIC, Reed spent 8 years at the U.S. Government Accountability Office reviewing federal government programs as part of the Natural Resources and Environment team. His work has included reviews of EPA's air quality monitoring program and technology transfer at multiple agencies, and efforts to make better use of data and build capacity at GAO. As a graduate student, he helped NGOs in Tanzania and Indonesia refine strategies for tackling human-wildlife conflict around a national park and improving urban water sources. Reed holds a Masters of Public Administration from Cornell University, where he focused on science, technology, and infrastructure policy, and BA in International Political Economy from Georgetown University.
John Paul Miller (JP) is Director of Environmental Strategies at the Center for Geospatial Solutions (CGS), where he leads initiatives across wetlands, water resources, land restoration, and environmental monitoring. His work focuses on developing actionable data and decision-support tools that help public agencies and partners steward land and water resources more effectively and equitably.