Biography
Dr. Bishwodeep Adhikari is an Assistant Professor in Civil Engineering. His research focuses on hydrology, water quality, and sustainable stormwater management in the context of a changing climate. With a research background that integrates hydrologic modeling, environmental geochemistry, and urban stormwater infrastructure, Dr. Adhikari explores how land use, climate variability, and infrastructure design influence runoff, pollutant, and nutrient dynamics across natural and built environments. He applies field observations, laboratory analyses, and computational methods (including machine learning and process-based models) to better understand and improve the performance of water systems under environmental stressors. His academic training includes a Ph.D. in Civil Engineering from The Pennsylvania State University and a Masters’s degree in Geology from Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI), which brings an added dimension to his understanding of subsurface processes and environmental systems.
Before joining Penn State Harrisburg, Dr. Adhikari served as a Postdoctoral Scholar at Kent State University and worked as a Hydrologist in the private sector. His research expertise ranges from global-scale analysis to site-level applications, with the goal of informing sustainable water infrastructure design. He values mentoring and interdisciplinary collaboration, and believes that building collaborative partnerships is an important way to connect research to real-world solutions.
Research Interests
- Sustainable stormwater infrastructure and green infrastructure design
- Climate-informed hydrologic modeling and flood risk assessment
- Nutrient and pollutant dynamics in urban and natural water systems
- Water quality under changing land use and climate
- Data-driven and process-based approaches to water resources management
Publications
Tarannum, T., Adhikari, B., & McPhillips, L. E. (2025). Internal Water Storage as a Means of Improving Nitrogen Retention and Reducing Greenhouse Gas Emission in Stormwater Treatment. ACS ES&T Water, 5(3), 1137-1147.
Adhikari, B., & McPhillips, L. (2025). Analysis of the Hydrologic Performance in a Lined Bioretention Basin and Implications for Monitoring and Design. Journal of Sustainable Water in the Built Environment, 11(1), 05024004.
Anderson, K. J., Adhikari, B., Schloegel, O. F., Mendonca, R. M., Back, M. P., Brocato, N., Cianci-Gaskill., J.A., McMurray, S.E., Bahlai, C., Costello, D.M. & Kinsman-Costello, L. (2024). We know less about phosphorus retention in constructed wetlands than we think we do: A quantitative literature synthesis. Ecological Indicators, 169, 112969.
Fischer, C., Adhikari, B., Mcphillips, L., Wu, H., Gotsch, S., & Clark, S. (2023, July). De-icing salt transport from the street through a roadside bioretention basin. In Novatech 2023.
McPhillips L., Adhikari, B., Brown, A., Clark, S. & Wu, H. (2023). Impacts of salt loading on nutrient and metal processing in stormwater bioretention. Report. Chesapeake Bay Trust Pooled Monitoring Initiative's Restoration Research Program.
Adhikari, B., Perlman, R., Rigden, A., Walter, M. T., Clark, S., & McPhillips, L. (2023). Field assessment of metal and base cation accumulation in green stormwater infrastructure soils. Science of The Total Environment, 875, 162500.
Adhikari, B., & Wang, L. (2020). The potential contribution of soil moisture to fog formation in the Namib Desert. Journal of Hydrology, 591, 125326.
Education
Ph.D., Civil Engineering, The Pennsylvania State University