People have lived in the Everglades region for thousands of years. Within the past 100 years however, they have changed the natural landscape dramatically. Settlement of urban areas in South Florida was facilitated by large drainage projects intended to create more land. The drainage was often implemented without a full understanding of the intricacies of ecosystems and shaping processes of the Everglades.[92] The South Florida metropolitan area grew exponentially, causing problems in ecosystems throughout the Everglades. By the 1990s, the diminishing quality of life in many of these urban areas was linked to the degraded local environment.[93] The State of Florida and the U.S. government devised and passed a plan in 2000 to restore as much of the Everglades to pre-drainage conditions as possible. It is the costliest and most comprehensive environmental restoration project in history.[94]