Director of ICATALIST, member of the European Scientific Council on Climate Change, lead author of IPCC Working Group II on Adaptation, Vulnerability and Impacts. She collaborates as an expert in the Spanish Citizens’ Climate Assembly.
At ICATALIST her role focuses on the development of strategic projects related to climate change adaptation and sustainability for different stakeholders, social innovation and innovation-based public policy. She leads an interdisciplinary team to implement projects that aim to have a positive impact, based on a range of products and services around shared values.
Founder and Director of ICATALIST. Elena completed her PhD at King’s College, London. She holds a Master’s degree from Cambridge University and a Master’s degree in Investigative Journalism, Data Management and Visualisation from the Juan Carlos I University with the newspaper “El Mundo”.
She was Associate Professor at IE Business School and Visiting Senior Fellow at the London School of Economics as Alcoa Research Fellow.
Professionally, Elena has worked with several organisations, including UNESCO, FAO, UNDP, the EU Directorate-General for Research and Innovation, universities and basin agencies, as well as with the private and third sectors.
She has published on a variety of topics mainly related to water security, social innovation, collaborative decision making, water governance, climate change adaptation, policy evaluation, knowledge management and transfer.
Its current main focus is on climate change adaptation, collective action and the role of green infrastructure, as well as strategic (ground) water management.
" We only reflect the world. All the tendencies present in the outer world are found in the inner world. If we could change ourselves, the tendencies in the world would also change."
- M. Gandhi
– CEO and founder of Icatalist
– President of the BRIGAID Connect Association
– Lead author IPCC
– Member of the European Climate Change Advisory Council
– Expert at the Citizens’ Climate Assembly
A forestry engineer with a PhD in sustainable water resource management from the Polytechnic University of Madrid (2014), which enabled her to develop her technical skills and cultivate an enthusiastic, critical and positive mindset, allowing her to understand different points of view and develop innovative ideas. She is a member of the FAO Water Footprint Technical Advisory Group and has more than 10 years of experience in designing, implementing and managing projects to address environmental and sustainability challenges, including climate change and extreme hydro-climatic events, water, food and energy security, and sustainable development.
Gloria has extensive experience in national and international projects (Europe, USA, Latin America and South East Asia) working with various sectors (agriculture, water, biodiversity, urban planning, energy and mining) and governmental, non-governmental and private organisations. Qualified project manager (with APM Project Management Qualification) and author of over 40 publications on a variety of topics, including sustainable water and land management, drought and flood management, and sustainable development.
2023
• Toledo, L., Salmoral, G., Viteri-Salazar, O. (2023). Rethinking Agricultural Policy in Ecuador (1960–2020): Analysis Based on the Water–Energy–Food Security Nexus. Sustainability. https://doi.org/10.3390/su151712850
2022
• Correa-Cano, M.E., Salmoral, G., Rey, D., Knox, J.W., Graves, A., Melo, O., Foster, W., Naranjo, L., Zegarra, E., Johnson, C., Viteri-Salazar, O., Yan, X. (2022) A novel modelling toolkit for unpacking the Water-Energy-Food-Environment (WEFE) nexus of agricultural development. Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rser.2022.112182
• Goodwin, D., Holman, I., Sutcliffe, C., Salmoral, G., Pardthaisong, L., Visessri, S., Ekkawatpanit, C., Rey, D. (2023). The contribution of a catchment-scale advice network to successful agricultural drought adaptation in Northern Thailand. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society. https://doi.org/10.1098/rsta.2021.0293
2021
• Boulay, A-M., Drastig, K., Amanullah, Chapagain, A., Charlon, V., Civit, B., Hess, T., Hoekstra, A.Y., Ibidhi, R., Lathuillière, M.J., Manzardo, A., McAllister, T., Motoshita, M., Pirlo, G., Ridoutt, B., Russo, V., Salmoral, G., Singh, R., Vanham, D., Pfister, S. (2021) Water footprinting in Livestock: Guidelines for assessment. Building consensus on water use assessment of livestock production systems and supply chains: Outcome and recommendations from the FAO LEAP Partnership. Ecological indicators. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecolind.2021.107391
2020
• Boulay, A-M., Drastig, K., Amanullah, Chapagain, A., Charlon, V., Civit, B., Hess, T., Hoekstra, A.Y., Ibidhi, R., Lathuillière, M.J., Manzardo, A., McAllister, T., Motoshita, M., Pirlo, G., Ridoutt, B., Russo, V., Salmoral, G., Singh, R., Vanham, D., Pfister, S. (2020) Water use in livestock production systems and supply chains. Guidelines for assessment. FAO.
• Salmoral, G., Viñarta Carbo, A., Zegarra, E., Knox, J.W., Rey, D. (2020) Reconciling irrigation demands for agricultural expansion with environmental sustainability-A preliminary assessment for the Ica Valley, Peru. Journal of Cleaner Production. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2020.123544
• Salmoral, G., Zegarra, E., Vázquez-Rowe, I., González, F., Del Castillo, L., Rondón Saravia, G., Graves, A., Rey, D., Knox, J.W. (2020) Water-related challenges in nexus governance for sustainable development: Insights from the city of Arequipa, Peru. Science of The Total Environment. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2020.141114
• Salmoral, G., Ababio, B., Holman, I.P. (2020) Drought impacts, coping responses and adaptation in the UK Outdoor livestock sector: insights to increase drought resilience. Land. https://doi.org/10.3390/land9060201
• Salmoral, G., Rivas Casado, M, Muthusamy, M., Butler, D., Menon, P.P., Leinster, P. (2020) Guidelines for the use of unmanned aerial systems in flood emergency response. Water. https://doi.org/10.3390/w12020521
2019
• McGrane S., Acuto, M., Artioli, F., Chen, P., Coomber, R., Cottee, J., Farr-Wharton, G., Helfgott, A., Larcom, S., McCann, J., Salmoral, G., Scott, M., Todman, L.C., van Gevelt, T., Yan, X (2019). Scaling the nexus: Towards integrated frameworks for analysing water, energy and food. The Geographical Journal. https://doi.org/10.1111/geoj.12256
• Salmoral, G., Schaap, N.C., Walschebauer, J., Alhajaj, A. (2019) Water diplomacy and nexus governance in a transboundary context: In the search for complementarities, Science of the Total Environment. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2019.06.513
• Salmoral, G., Rey, D., Rudd, A., de Margon, P., Holman, I. (2019) A probabilistic risk assessment of the national economic impacts of regulatory drought management on irrigated agriculture, Earth’s Future. https://doi.org/10.1029/2018EF001092 Dataset/s: 10.17862/cranfield.rd.7613192
• Muthusamy, M., Rivas Casado, M.,Salmoral, G., Irvine, T., Leinster, P. (2019) A remote sensing based integrated approach to quantify the impact of fluvial and pluvial flooding in an urban catchment, Remote Sensing. https://doi.org/10.3390/rs11050577
2018
• Salmoral, G., Khatun, K., Madrid-López, C., Llive, F. (2018) Agricultural development in Ecuador: a compromise between water and food security? Journal of Cleaner Production. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2018.07.308
• Salmoral, G., Yan, X (2018). Food-energy-water nexus: a life cycle analysis on virtual water and embodied energy in food consumption in the Tamar catchment, UK. Resources, Conservation and Recycling. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.resconrec.2018.01.018
• Izurieta A, …,Salmoral G, …and Sutherland WJ (2018) A collaboratively derived environmental research agenda for Galápagos, Pacific Conservation Biology. https://doi.org/10.1071/PC17053_CO
• Khatun, K., Salmoral, G. (2018). Appreciating wider environmental angles. In: Handbook of the Resource Nexus. Bleischwitz, R., Hoff, H., Spataru, C., van der Voet, E. and VanDeveer, S.D. (eds) Routledge, London and New York.
2017
• Bunakov, V., Lambert, S., Yan, X., Salmoral, G., Scott, M., McGrane, S. “Modelling water-energy-food nexus by a network of agents”. In: Benoît Otjacques, Patrik Hitzelberger, Stefan Naumann, Volker Wohlgemuth (Eds.) From Science to Society: The Bridge provided by Environmental Informatics. Adjunct Proceedings of the 31st EnviroInfo conference. Shaker (2017): 85-92.
• Salmoral, G., Willaarts, B.A., Garrido, A., Guse, B. (2017) Fostering integrated land and water management approaches: Evaluating the water footprint of a Mediterranean basin under different agricultural land use scenarios. Land Use Policy. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.landusepol.2016.09.027
2016
• Serrat-Capdevila, A., Cabello, V., Boyanova, K., Poupeau, F., Hernandez-Mora, N., Gupta, H., Yang, Z., Limones, N., O’Neill, B.F., Segura, S., Benites, E., Yaneva, R., Coeurdray, M., Cortinas, J., Kuhn, K., Harris, S., Sans-Fuentes, M., Curley, E.F., del Moral, L., Valdes, J.B., Schneier-Madanes, G., King, O., Rodrigues, D.B.B., Salmoral, G. (2016) Bringing all the stories together: Beyond the Tucson case study. In: Water Bankruptcy in the Land of Plenty, Editors: Franck Poupeau, Hoshin Gupta, Aleix Serrat-Capdevilla, Maria A. Sans-Fuentes, Susan Harris, Laszlo G. Hayde.
• Serrat-Capdevila, A., Cabello, V., Boyanova, K., Poupeau, F., Hernandez-Mora, N., Gupta, H., Yang, Z., Limones, N., O’Neill, B.F., Segura, S., Benites, E., Yaneva, R., Coeurdray, M., Cortinas, J., Kuhn, K., Harris, S., Sans-Fuentes, M., Curley, E.F., del Moral, L., Valdes, J.B., Schneier-Madanes, G., King, O., Rodrigues, D.B.B., Salmoral, G. (2016) Next Steps: Collaborative research and training towards transdisciplinarity. In: Water Bankruptcy in the Land of Plenty, Editors: Franck Poupeau, Hoshin Gupta, Aleix Serrat-Capdevilla, Maria A. Sans-Fuentes, Susan Harris, Laszlo G. Hayde.
2015
• Salmoral, G., Willaarts, B., Troch, P., Garrido, A. (2015) Drivers influencing streamflow changes in the Upper Turia basin, Spain. Science of the Total Environment. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2014.07.041
• Salmoral, G., Garrido, A. (2015) Drivers of water quality changes: the impact of the Common Agricultural Policy in the Guadalquivir river basin (South Spain). Bio-based and Applied Economics. http://dx.doi.org/10.13128/BAE-15301
2014
• Willaarts, B., Salmoral, G., Farinaci, J.S., Sanz-Sánchez, M.J. (2014) Trends in land use and ecosystem services in Latin America. In: Willaarts et al. (eds) Water for Food and Human Well-being in Latin America: Status and Challenges in a Globalized World.
2013
• Navarro, R.M. Guzmán, R.M., López, Sánchez, R., Moreno, J. Salmoral, G. (2013) Restauración de pinsapo (Abies Pinsapo Bioss.) en Andalucía. In: Andalusian Regional Government-University of Cordoba(eds.) The Spanish firs in Andalusia: conservation and sustainability in the 21st century.
• Dumont, A., Salmoral, G., Llamas, R. (2013) The Water Footprint of a river basin with a special focus on groundwater: the case of Guadalquivir basin (Spain). Water Resources and Industry. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.wri.2013.04.001
• Serrat-Capdevila, A., Poupeau, F., Cabello, V., Salmoral, G., Segura, S., Boyanova, K., Yang, Z., Rodrigues, D. (2013) Interdisciplinary approach of water management: Outlines for a conceptual framework. Working paper.
2012
• Salmoral, G. & Chico, D. (2012) Lessons learnt from the analyses of the tomato and olive oil water footprint in Spain. In: De Stefano, L. And Llamas, R. (eds.) Water, Agriculture and the Environment in Spain: can we square the circle?
• Custodio, E., Garrido, A., Coleto, C., Salmoral, G. (2012) The Challenges of Agricultural Diffuse Pollution. In: De Stefano, L. and Llamas, R. (eds.) Water, Agriculture and the Environment in Spain: can we square the circle?
2011
• Salmoral, G., Aldaya, M.M., Chico, D., Garrido, A., Llamas, M.R. (2011) The water footprint of olive oil in Spain. Spanish Journal of Agricultural Research. http://dx.doi.org/10.5424/sjar/20110904-035-11
• Salmoral, G., Dumont, A., Aldaya, M.M., Rodríguez-Casado, R., Garrido, A., Llamas, R. (2011) The Extended Water Footprint Analysis of the Guadalquivir basin. SHAN nº 1. Water Observatory. Fundación Marcelino Botín.
2010
• Chico, D., Aldaya, M.M., Garrido, A., Llamas, M.R. Salmoral, G., 2010. The water footprint and virtual water exports of Spanish tomatoes. Papeles de Agua Virtual nº 8. Water Observatory. Fundación Marcelino Botín.
2008
• Salmoral, G., Navarro, R.M, Guzmán, J.R., Sánchez, R. (2008) “Evaluation of reforestation work to promote the restoration of the Spanish fir forest in the Sierra de las Nieves (1960-2007)”. Notebooks of the Spanish Society of Forestry Sciences 28: pp. 95-102.
The cups of poison, how tempting they are! And they are made of flowers, herbs and leaves. We are surrounded by poison that lulls us like the wind, harps of moon and sun in branches tender...
- Juan Ramón Jiménez
• Senior Researcher at Icatalist
