People
SOLUTIONSCAPES brings together an interdisciplinary group of researchers from 6 universities and 10 partner organizations across Canada to address climate solutions at the food-water-energy nexus
Team members have expertise in a wide range of disciplines, including food systems (Ramankutty, Loring), water (Basu, Tolson, Baulch, Loring, Van Meter), greenhouse gas emissions (DelSontro, Wagner-Riddle, Congreves, Baulch, Saari), agricultural landscapes (Congreves, Wagner-Riddle, Basu, Van Meter, Loring), ecosystem services (Bennett, Rooney), and energy systems (Moreno-Cruz, Saari). The diverse team consists of social scientists and economists (Garrick, Loring, Moreno-Cruz), knowledge mobilization experts (Goucher, Loring), and data scientists and computational modellers (Layton, Basu).
Wetland restoration in agricultural landscapes
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Nandita Basu, PI, Professor and Canada Research Chair, University of Waterloo
Nandita is a Professor and Canada Research Chair (Tier I) of Global Water Sustainability and Ecohydrology at the University of Waterloo.
Nandita is an environmental engineer, who uses data science, process modelling and remote sensing to explore how climate, land use, and management impacts surface and groundwater quality from watershed to the regional and global scales, with the overall goal of leveraging these insights to develop watershed management strategies that maximizes environmental benefits without significant economic costs.
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Helen Baulch, Co-I, Associate Professor, University of Saskatchewan
Helen is an Associate Professor at the School of Environment and Sustainability of the University of Saskatchewan.
Her research focuses on water quality, eutrophication and algal blooms, winter limnology, biogeochemical cycling, and greenhouse gas emissions and climate change.
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Tonya DelSontro, Co-I, Assistant Professor, University of Waterloo
Tonya is an Assistant Professor at the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences of the University of Waterloo.
She is a limnologist and aquatic biogeochemist interested in climate and water use-related issues of inland waters, specifically aquatic greenhouse gas dynamics and its interaction with climate.
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Kimberly Van Meter, Co-I, Assistant Professor, Penn State University
Kimberly is an Assistant Professor at the College of Earth and Mineral Sciences of Penn State.
She is a water system scientist who studies the many ways in which human activity is affecting water quality and water availability across a range of different landscapes. She uses remote sensing, large-scale data analysis, and process-based modeling approaches to explore the influences of climate, land use, and management practices on water quality, especially in large agroecosystems.
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Rebecca Rooney, Co-I, Associate Professor, University of Waterloo
Rebecca is an Associate Professor at the Department of Biology of the University of Waterloo.
She carries out research in wetland ecology and is a world expert on biomonitoring and wetland assessment. Rebecca examines how human-caused and natural ecological disturbances influence wetland communities. Her research supports the implementation of wetland policy, invasive species management, and the protection of species at risk.
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Emily Ury, Postdoctoral Fellow, Environmental Defense Fund
Emily is a Cooley Postdoctoral Science Fellow at the Environmental Defense Fund.
She is a a biogeochemist and landscape ecologist investigating the effects of global change on wetlands and the role of wetlands as solutions to environmental problems. Emily uses a combination of empirical methods and spatial modelling to understand how landscapes are changing and what the consequences are for ecosystems and people.
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Tyler Hampton, Postdoctoral Fellow, University of Waterloo
Tyler is a Postdoctoral Scholar in the Earth and Environmental Sciences department at the University of Waterloo in Canada.
His research focuses on nature-based solutions to threats facing water resources, as well as on the restoration of agricultural wetlands for nutrient mitigation.
Turning waste into resources
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Juan Moreno-Cruz, Co-I, Associate Professor and Canada Research Chair, University of Waterloo
Juan is an Associate Professor at the School of Environment, Enterprise and Development of the University of Waterloo and a CESifo Research Affiliate.
His research focuses on the interaction of energy systems, technological change, and climate policy. His most influential work examines how solar and carbon geoengineering technologies affect climate policy. His most recent work provides novel insights into the process of energy transitions by demonstrating how energy access shapes the organization of the economy in cities and how energy consumption in cities in turn pollutes the local and global environment.
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Rebecca Saari, Co-I, Associate Professor, University of Waterloo
Rebecca is an Associate Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of Waterloo.
Her research aims to understand the health risks and benefits of engineering and policy responses to climate change. To do this, her lab develops novel, coupled, interdisciplinary modelling systems and data-driven approaches.
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Bryan Tolson, Co-I, Professor, University of Waterloo
Bryan is a Professor at the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering of the University of Waterloo.
He has two core research areas: hydrological modelling and environmental/water resources systems optimization. Bryan enjoys things like designing heuristic optimization algorithms, formulating complex and large-scale optimization problems and fitting simulation models to data, which are then applied to a variety of application areas including hydrologic model calibration, water distribution network calibration and optimal design and Great Lakes water level management.
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Nandita Basu, PI, Professor and Canada Research Chair, University of Waterloo
Nandita is a Professor and Canada Research Chair (Tier I) of Global Water Sustainability and Ecohydrology at the University of Waterloo.
Basu is an environmental engineer, who uses data science, process modeling and remote sensing to explore how climate, land use, and management impacts surface and groundwater quality from watershed to the regional and global scales, with the overall goal of leveraging these insights to develop watershed management strategies that maximizes environmental benefits without significant economic costs.
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Ushnik Mukherjee, Research Associate, University of Waterloo
Ushnik is a Research Associate in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering of the University of Waterloo.
He identifies water pollution hotspots using a combination of remote sensing and agricultural census.
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Nettie Wallace, Masters Student, University of Waterloo
Nettie is a Graduate Researcher at the University of Waterloo.
She is investigating the impacts of land-applied manure and digestate (from anaerobic digesters) on water quality and greenhouse gas emissions.
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Savannah Bindas, Masters Student, University of Waterloo
Savannah is a Graduate Researcher at the University of Waterloo.
She has a passion for exploring the co-benefits of climate change mitigation strategies and air pollution control measures. She is focusing on how biogas, produced from organic waste, can reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.
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Camila Jorente Granito, Masters Student, University of Waterloo
Camila is a Graduate Researcher at the University of Waterloo in the department of Civil and Environmental Engineering.
Sustainable farm management practises
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Navin Ramankutty, Co-I, Professor and Canada Research Chair, University of British Columbia
Navin is a Professor and Canada Research Chair of Global Environmental Change and Food Security at the University of British Columbia.
His current research uses global data and models to explore strategies for sustainable food systems. He has contributed to international scientific assessments including the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment, IPCC, and IPBES.
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Elena Bennett, Co-I, Professor and Canada Research Chair, McGill University
Elena is a Professor and CRC (Tier 1) Chair of Sustainability Science at McGill University.
Her work focuses on the interactions among ecosystem services and how we can manage these interactions for multifunctional working landscapes. She was the leader of the Montérégie Connection project that worked with stakeholders to understand the role of landscape connectivity in the provision of about a dozen ecosystem services and how those might change across a range of future scenarios.
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Claudia Wagner-Riddle, Co-I, Professor, University of Guelph
Claudia is a Professor at the School of Environmental Sciences of the University of Guelph.
Claudia leads an internationally-renowned research program utilizing the measurement of greenhouse gas emissions to determine the carbon footprint of food, feed, and fuel produced by agriculture. Claudia currently leads several projects focused on evaluating how soil health impacts ecosystem services, including a new $2 million infrastructure using large scale soil weighing lysimeter.
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Kate Congreves, Co-I, Associate Professor, University of Saskatchewan
Kate is an Associate Professor at the Department of Plant Sciences of the University of Saskatchewan.
Her research supports sustainable agriculture by better understanding the mechanisms that regulate nutrient cycling, soil health, and greenhouse gas emissions—and determining the implications for ecosystem functioning.
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Helen Baulch, Co-I, Associate Professor, University of Saskatchewan
Helen is an Associate Professor at the School of Environment and Sustainability of the University of Saskatchewan.
Her research focuses on water quality, eutrophication and algal blooms, winter limnology, biogeochemical cycling, and greenhouse gas emissions and climate change.
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Jeff Liebert, Postdoctoral Fellow, University of British Columbia
Jeff is a Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of British Columbia.
With interdisciplinary training & extensive farmer-focused experience, Jeff explores the co-benefits and trade-offs associated with multifunctional agricultural landscapes.
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Kushank Bajaj, PhD Student, University of British Columbia
Kushank is a Doctoral Researcher at the Institute for Resource, Environment and Sustainability of the University of British Columbia.
He uses data science to answer questions about sustainable food systems and climate change. Kushank is developing large datasets on farm experiments and statistical models tailored to agriculture solutions.
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Jon MacDonald, PhD Student, University of Saskatchewan
Jon is a Doctoral Researcher at the University of Saskatchewan.
Jon's research explores the intricate relationship between food systems, wetlands, and agriculture.
Cross-cutting themes: Modeling, governance and synthesis
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Anita Layton, Co-I, Professor and Canada Research Chair, University of Waterloo
Anita is a Canada 150 Research Chair in Mathematical Biology and Medicine and Professor of Applied Mathematics, Computer Science, Pharmacy and Biology at the University of Waterloo.
She leads a diverse and interdisciplinary team of researchers using computational modeling tools to better understand aspects of health and disease. Anita’s group collaborates with physiologists, biomedical engineers and clinicians to formulate detailed models of cellular and organ function.
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Dustin Garrick, Co-I, Associate Professor, University of Waterloo
Dustin is an Associate Professor of Global Water Policy at the University of Waterloo.
He is interested in the evolution of conflict and cooperation over water and other shared natural resources in the context of climate change, biodiversity loss and rapid urbanisation. His approach is multi-disciplinary, spanning public policy, geography and institutional economics, and anchored in field-based and comparative research across a network of observatories which track long-term changes in natural resource conflicts and institutional responses. This work seeks to advance collective action theory and contribute to our understanding of common pool resource governance.
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Phil Loring, Co-I, Director, Human Dimensions Science, The Nature Conservancy
Phil is the Director of Human Dimensions Science for The Nature Conservancy’s Global Science Team and adjunct at University of Guelph & University of Saskatchewan.
His work focuses on the intersection of sustainability, food systems, social justice, and climate change. He is particularly interested in transformations to agroecology and food sovereignty and the potential therein for climate action.
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Nandita Basu, PI, Professor and Canada Research Chair, University of Waterloo
Nandita is a Professor and Canada Research Chair (Tier I) of Global Water Sustainability and Ecohydrology at the University of Waterloo.
Basu is an environmental engineer, who uses data science, process modeling and remote sensing to explore how climate, land use, and management impacts surface and groundwater quality from watershed to the regional and global scales, with the overall goal of leveraging these insights to develop watershed management strategies that maximizes environmental benefits without significant economic costs.
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Juan Moreno-Cruz, Co-I, Associate Professor and Canada Research Chair, University of Waterloo
Juan is an Associate Professor at the School of Environment, Enterprise and Development of the University of Waterloo and a CESifo Research Affiliate.
His research focuses on the interaction of energy systems, technological change, and climate policy. His most influential work examines how solar and carbon geoengineering technologies affect climate policy. His most recent work provides novel insights into the process of energy transitions by demonstrating how energy access shapes the organization of the economy in cities and how energy consumption in cities in turn pollutes the local and global environment.
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Navin Ramankutty, Co-I, Professor and Canada Research Chair, University of British Columbia
Navin is a Professor and Canada Research Chair of Global Environmental Change and Food Security at the University of British Columbia.
His current research uses global data and models to explore strategies for sustainable food systems. He has contributed to international scientific assessments including the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment, IPCC, and IPBES.
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Elena Bennett, Co-I, Professor and Canada Research Chair, McGill University
Elena is a Professor and CRC (Tier 1) of Sustainability Science at McGill University.
Her work focuses on the interactions among ecosystem services and how we can manage these interactions for multifunctional working landscapes. She was the leader of the Montérégie Connection project that worked with stakeholders to understand the role of landscape connectivity in the provision of about a dozen ecosystem services and how those might change across a range of future scenarios.
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Graham Epstein, Research Associate, University of Waterloo
Graham is a Research Associate in the School of Environment, Resources and Sustainability of the University of Waterloo with expertise in the human dimensions of conservation and natural resource management.
His research addresses a range of questions at the intersection of people, the environment and policy to advance understanding of how policies can be designed and tailored to support collective action compliance, and pursue sustainable, equitable and just conservation and natural resource management across diverse social and ecological contexts.
Project Office
Nandita Basu, Principal Investigator
Nancy Goucher, Knowledge Mobilization Specialist
Laura Klein, Project Manager
Partners and Collaborators
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Ducks Unlimited Canada
Ducks Unlimited Canada conserves, restores and manages wetlands and grasslands to benefit waterfowl, wildlife and people. Their goal is to ensure abundant wetlands and waterfowl for generations to come while improving Canadian lives.
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Canadian Water Network
Canadian Water Network is an independent non-profit with a purpose of getting communities closer to the future they want by accelerating, advancing and improving water management decisions.
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Canadian Biogas Association
Canadian Biogas Association is a member-driven industry organization that supports the diverse needs of the biogas and renewable natural gas (RNG) sector with the goal of building a strong, robust biogas & RNG industry in Canada.
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Toronto Region Conservation Authority
Toronto Region Conservation Authority (TRCA) maintains vital infrastructure and provides programs and services that promote public health and safety, protecting people and property.
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Grand River Conservation Authority
A partnership of watershed municipalities, and provides an avenue to work together, addressing environmental issues and opportunities that serve to benefit the entire Grand River watershed.
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Conservation Ontario
Conservation Ontario is a non-profit association that represents Ontario’s 36 Conservation Authorities.
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Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada
Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada supports the Canadian agriculture and agri-food sector through initiatives that promote innovation and competitiveness.
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Ontario Ministry of Agriculture Food and Rural Affairs
The Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs (OMAFRA) is an Ontario government ministry responsible for the food, agriculture and rural sectors of the Canadian province of Ontario.
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Alternative Land Use Services
A charitable organization with an innovative community-developed and farmer-delivered program that produces, enhances and maintains ecosystem services on agricultural lands.
Faculty members
Students & early career researchers
Affiliated Institutions
Partner organizations