Chile’s Superintendence of the Environment (SMA) has signed a collaboration agreement with Stanford University’s Regulation, Evaluation, and Governance Lab (RegLab) to strengthen preventive monitoring, oversight, and evaluation of environmental public policies through data-based solutions.
The three-year, renewable collaboration agreement will focus on two areas: forming an aquaculture strategy and supporting management of grievances, the SMA announced on its website.
The collaboration will aim to help the SMA develop and reference satellite images, digitally monitor environmental variables, and generate models for decision-making that will be employed to promote regulatory compliance and risk anticipation. Additionally, artificial intelligence and advanced analytical tools will expand environmental monitoring coverage in Chile, automate processes, and evaluate the impact of SMA's actions in order to strengthen environmental compliance.
SMA Head Marie Claude Plumer said that the partnership will build upon her agency’s use of technology in recent years to diversify and enhance its deterrent actions.
“This partnership consolidates this path with an institution of international prestige as it will strengthen oversight, optimize the use of resources, speed up processing times, and increase the traceability of decisions. This [will be achieved] through advanced analytics and AI-based tools that complement the SMA's decision-making, with privacy, security, and transparency safeguards in line with our regulations,” she said.
In turn, Stanford Professor and RegLab Director Daniel Ho praised SMA’s work so far in digital transformation and data use, saying it laid the ground for a “favorable terrain” to develop pilot technology that can contribute to compliance monitoring, grievance analysis, and early warning systems.
RegLab has an interdisciplinary team of legal experts, data scientists, social scientists, and engineers who partner with government agencies to design and evaluate programs, policies, and technologies.
It has focused on modernizing and improving government operations, particularly in the U.S., where it has partnered with federal departments such as the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). It has also worked more locally with various departments on the county level.
Aligning with larger governmental goals, the SMA has ramped up its enforcement of salmon production in Chile, stepping up environmental monitoring of operations and sanctioning environmental breaches and salmon overproduction. At the beginning of the year, it warned the salmon industry to follow the law when it comes to environmental stewardship.
However, some salmon-farming companies such as Cooke Aquaculture Chile have accused the environmental watchdog of being overzealous and overstepping boundaries.
