Nandita Basu

Nandita Basu is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of Waterloo and is also affiliated with the American Geophysical Union.

Her research interests mainly revolve around the sustainable management of water resources. Professor Basu is specifically interested in the study of watershed biogeochemistry under climate and land-use change, and observing its linkages with system sustainability and resilience. Other research interests of Professor Basu’s include understanding fate and transport of nutrients and emerging contaminants in human-dominated landscapes, along with catchment travel-time distributions and their role in predicting water quality across scales. She is also interested in modelling hydrology and water quality in depressional landscapes, and studying the sustainability of water resources.

Professor Basu’s current sources of research funding are from the National Science Foundation, and UW Start-up Funds.

• Nutrient Legacies in Anthropogenic Landscapes
• Watershed Hydrology and Biogeochemistry
• Fate and Transport of Nutrients
• Emerging Contaminants
• Water Quality
• Modeling Hydrology and Water Quality
• Sustainability of Water Resources in semi-arid regions of the Developing World

• 2006, Doctorate, Environmental Engineering, Purdue University
• 2000, Master of Engineering, Environmental Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur

• CIVE 382 - Hydrol & Open Channel Flow
  • Taught in 2017, 2018, 2019
• CIVE 497 - Special Topics in Civil Eng
  • Taught in 2019, 2020
• CIVE 770 - Topics in Environmental Eng
  • Taught in 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020

• Gall, Heather E and Basu, Nandita B and Mashtare, Michael L and Rao, P Suresh C and Lee, Linda S, Assessing the impacts of anthropogenic and hydro-climatic drivers on estrogen legacies and trajectories, Advances in Water Resources, 87, 2016, 19 - 28
• Cohen, Matthew J and Creed, Irena F and Alexander, Laurie and Basu, Nandita B and Calhoun, Aram JK and Craft, Christopher and D’Amico, Ellen and DeKeyser, Edward and Fowler, Laurie and Golden, Heather E and others, Do geographically isolated wetlands influence landscape functions?, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 113(8), 2016, 1978 - 1986
• Sloan, Brandon P and Basu, Nandita B and Mantilla, Ricardo, Hydrologic impacts of subsurface drainage at the field scale: Climate, landscape and anthropogenic controls, Agricultural Water Management, 165, 2016, 1 - 10
• Van Meter, KJ and Basu, NB and Veenstra, JJ and Burras, CL, The nitrogen legacy: emerging evidence of nitrogen accumulation in anthropogenic landscapes, Environmental Research Letters, 11(3), 2016
• Van Meter, Kimberly J and McLaughlin, Daniel L and Basu, Nandita B, The socioecohydrology of rainwater harvesting in India: understanding water storage and release dynamics across spatial scales, Hydrology and Earth System Sciences, 20(7), 2016
• Basu, N.B., Van Meter, K.J., and Van Capellen, P., Beyond the Mass Balance: Modeling Legacy Phosphorus Dynamics in a Great Lakes Watershed, 12 , Washington DC.
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• Basu, N.B., Biogeochemical Hotspots: Role of Small Water Bodies in Watershed Nutrient Processing, 09 , Online.
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• Basu, N.B. and Van Meter, K.J., Changing Waters: Role of Climate-Driven Changes in Discharge Regimes in Increasing Eutrophication Risk in the Great Lakes Basin, 12 , Washington DC.
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• Basu, N.B., Back to the Future: How Past Land Use Impacts current Water Quality, 11 , Columbus, OH, USA.
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• Prof selected for sustainability leadership program
• Restoring wetlands near farms would dramatically reduce water pollution
• Prof wins international recognition for her water work
• Outdoor watering restrictions only work in hottest, driest weather

• Currently accepting applications for graduate students