Water, Environmental and Agricultural Resources Economics (WEARE)

Professor

Biography

I am a Full Professor at the Higher School of Agriculture and Forestry Engineering (ETSIAM), University of Cordoba (Spain), specialising in sustainability sciences. With a PhD focused on European policies for rural areas, my research delves into the intricate relationships between social and natural systems for sustainable development, emphasising the social and human dimensions of environmental challenges. My work encompasses governance, perception, resilience, sustainable development, and community-based management, and I possess extensive professional experience across Europe and Latin America.

More recently, I expanded my research focus to encompass sustainability in urban settings. My role as a member of the High-Level Expert Group on Innovating Cities for the European Commission underscores my commitment to urban sustainability. Additionally, I played a pivotal role in crafting the report titled “The Human-Centred City: Opportunities for Citizens Through Research and Innovation.”

I possess a wealth of experience in European projects, both as a Project Coordinator and a dedicated researcher and evaluator. I do coordinate 2 Horizon 2020 projects: IN-HABIT: Inclusive Health and Wellbeing in Small and Medium Size Cities (2020-2024) and MOVING: Mountain Valorization through Interconnectedness and Green Growth (2020-2023); and coordinated FP7 COMET-LA: Community-based Management of Environmental Challenges in Latin America (2012- 2015), recognised as a success story by the European Commission. I participated as a researcher in another H2020 project, DESIRA: Digitization Economic and Social Impacts in Rural Areas (2019-2022) and now in the Horizon Europe project CODECS: Maximising the CO-benefits of agricultural Digitalisation through conducive digital ECoSystems (2022-2026). I have also been the Principal Investigator of CLIMA-AGRI: Perceptions of climate change among Andalusia farmers (2019-2021) and SULANET: Sustainable Land Management Network (2015-2018), which analysed the changes in land use in several European countries.

I have also evaluated numerous calls within the European project landscape and acted as an expert on different occasions. In my role as the Delegate of the Rector for International Projection (2018-2022) at the University of Cordoba, I have undertaken the crucial responsibility of spearheading efforts to attract international research funds to our institution. This diverse experience underscores my comprehensive understanding of the intricacies of European initiatives and my commitment to advancing research and sustainability.

I also have actively contributed to significant global initiatives related to agriculture and rural development such as the Education Policies for Rural Development, coordinated by UNESCO and FAO, and the International Assessment of Agricultural Science and Technology for Development, coordinated by the World Bank and the United Nations.

The following awards recognised my significant contributions to research and my commitment to environmental and gender-related topics: Member of the Spanish Order of Civil Merit, awarded by His Majesty the King of Spain (2021); ANSEMAC Award to Women Researchers in Environmental Topics (2021); Fellow of the Year in Cordoba (2022); Andalusia Women Moves Forward Award (2022).

Projects

IN-HABIT: Inclusive Health and Wellbeing in Small and Medium Size Cities (2020-2025). 10.7 million € H2020 https://www.inhabit-h2020.eu (Project Coordinator at EU level)

MOVING: Mountain Valorization through Interconnectedness and Green Growth (2020-2024). 6 million €. H2020 https://www.moving-h2020.eu (Project Coordinator at EU level)

CODECS: Maximising the CO-benefits of agricultural Digitalisation through conducive digital ECoSystems (2022-2026). 7 million €. (Principal Investigator at UCO)

DESIRA: Digitization Economic and Social Impacts in Rural Areas (2019-2023). 5 million €. H2020 http://desira2020.eu/ (Principal Investigator at UCO)

CLIMA-AGRI: Farmers perception of Climate Change (2020-2021). Andalusia Regional Government (Project Coordinator)

COMET-LA: Community-Based Management of Environmental Challenges in Latin America (2012-2015). 2 million €. 7 FP: http://www.uco.es/investigacion/proyectos/comet-la/index.php/en/ (Project Coordinator at EU level)

SULANET: Sustainable Land Management Network (2015-2018). 300.000€. Erasmus + http://sulanet.uniag.sk/ (Researcher)

Most relevant Peer-reviewed publications

2024

Cruz-Piedrahita, C., Martínez-Carranza, F.J. and Delgado Serrano, M.M. (2024). A multidimensional approach to understanding food deserts in vulnerable contexts, Sustainability, 16(3):1136  doi:10.3390/su16031136

Delgado-Serrano, M.M., Melichová, K., Mac Fadden, I. and Cruz-Piedrahita, C. (2024). Perception of green spaces’ role in enhancing mental health and mental well-being in small and medium-sized cities, Land Use Policy 139:107087 doi:10.1016/j.landusepol.2024.107087

2023

Delgado Serrano, M.M. (2023). Avanzando hacia la resiliencia y sostenibilidad de las áreas de montaña en Europa. El proyecto MOVING, Revista de Fomento Social 78(3):199-214 doi:10.32418/rfs.2023.307.5326

Moretti, M., Belliggiano, A., Grando, S., Felici, F., Scotti, I., Ievoli, C., Blackstock, K., Delgado-Serrano, M.M. and Brunori, G. (2023). Characterizing value chains’ contribution to resilient and sustainable development in European mountain areas, Journal of Rural Studies 100:103022 doi:10.1016/j.jrurstud.2023.103022

2022

Delgado Serrano, M.M. (2022). Hacia una digitalización inclusiva de las áreas rurales. in Estrada, E.M. (ed.), La España rural: retos y oportunidades de futuro. Cajamar Caja Rural, pp 385-400.

Delgado-Serrano, M.M., Rodríguez-Entrena, M., Castillo, M. and Brígido García, C.M. (2022). Percepción del cambio climático en el sector agrario andaluz. Universidad de Córdoba, Programa operativo FEDER Andalucía, pp 14 Informe

2020

Delgado-Serrano, M.M. and Borrego-Marín, M.M. (2020). Drivers of innovation in groundwater governance. The links between the social and the ecological systems. Land Use Policy. 91:104368 DOI: 10.1016/j.landusepol.2019.104368

Freshley, D. and Delgado-Serrano, M.M. (2020). Learning from the past in the transition to open-pollinated varieties, Sustainability 12(11):4716 DOI: 10.1016/10.3390/su12114716

2019

Landry, C., Crescenzi, R., Bartolo, A., Cullen, C., Delgado Serrano, M.M., Kabisch, S., Liakou, L., Matko, M., Rok, A. and Stikker, M. (2019). The Human-Centred City: Opportunities for citizens through research and innovation. European Commission, Luxembourg, pp 122. DOI:10.2777/859158

Navarro Cerrillo, R.M., Esteves Vieira, D.J., Ochoa-Gaona, S., de Jong, B.H.J. and Delgado-Serrano, M.M. (2019). Land cover changes and fragmentation in mountain neotropical ecosystems of Oaxaca, Mexico under community forest management. Journal of Forestry Research 30(1):143-155 DOI: 10.1007/s11676-017-0568-3

2018

Ambrosio-Albala, P. and Delgado-Serrano, M.M. (2018). Understanding Climate Change Perception in Community-Based Management Contexts: Perspectives of Two Indigenous Communities. Weather, Climate, and Society 10(3):471-485. DOI: 10.1175/wcas-d-17-0049.1

Delgado-Serrano, M.M. and Escalante Semerena, R. (2018). Gender and Cross-Scale Differences in the Perception of Social-Ecological Systems. Sustainability 10(9):2983. DOI: 10.3390/su10092983

Delgado-Serrano, M.M. and Hurtado Martos, J.A. (2018). Land use changes in Spain. Drivers and trends in agricultural land use. EU Agrarian Law 7(2):1-8. DOI: 10.2478/eual-2018-0006

Delgado-Serrano, M.M., Oteros-Rozas, E., Ruiz-Mallén, I., Calvo-Boyero, D. Ortiz-Guerrero, C.E., Escalante-Semerena, R.I. and Corbera, E. (2018). Influence of community-based natural resource management strategies in the resilience of social-ecological systems. Regional Environmental Change 18(2): 581-592. DOI: 10.1007/s10113-017-1223-4

Delgado-Serrano, M.M., Xóchitl Cruz-Bayer, A., Hernández López,I., Basurto Hernández,S., Ayala Correa, G. and Marneau Acevedo, A.R. (2018). Gobernanza colectiva de recursos de uso común. El caso de los bosques de Santiago Comaltepec, Ixtlán de Juárez, Oaxaca.UNAM.

2017

Delgado-Serrano, M.M.,.(2017).Trade-offs between conservation and development in community-based management initiatives. International Journal of the Commons 11(2): 969-991 DOI: 10.18352/ijc.792

Delgado-Serrano, M.M., Mistry, J., Matzdorf, B. and Leclerc, G.(2017).Community-based management of environmental challenges in Latin America and the Caribbean. Ecology and Society 22(1):4. DOI: 10.5751/ES-08924-220104

Delgado-Serrano, M.M., Ramos, P. and Lasso Zapata, E. (2017). Using Ostrom’s DPs as fuzzy sets to analyse how water policies challenge community-based water governance in Colombia. Water 9(7):535. DOI: 10.3390/w9070535

Gari, S., Newton, A., Icely, J. and Delgado-Serrano, M.M. (2017). An Analysis of the Global Applicability of Ostrom’s Design Principles to Diagnose the Functionality of Common-Pool Resource Institutions. Sustainability 9(7):1287. DOI: 10.3390/su9071287

2016

Delgado-Serrano, M.M., Vanwildemeersch, P., London, S., Ortiz-Guerrero, C.E., Escalante Semerena, R. and Rojas, M. (2016). Adapting Prospective Structural Analysis to strengthen sustainable management and capacity building in Community-Based Natural Resource. Ecology and Society 21(2):36. DOI: 10.5751/ES-08505-210236

2015

Delgado-Serrano, M.M., Oteros-Rozas, E., Vanwildemeersch, P., Ortíz-Guerrero, C., London, S. and Escalante, R.(2015). Local perceptions on social-ecological dynamics in Latin America in three community-based natural resource management systems. Ecology and Society 20(4):24. DOI: 10.5751/ES-07965-200424

Delgado-Serrano, M.M. and Ramos, P. (2015). Making Ostrom’s framework applicable to characterise social ecological systems at the local level. International Journal of the Commons 9(2):808-830 DOI: 10.18352/ijc.567

Delgado-Serrano, M.M., Ambrosio-Albalá, M. and Amador, F. (2015). Exploring Prospective Structural Analysis to Assess the Relevance of Rural Territorial Development in Spain and Nicaragua. Cuadernos de Desarrollo Rural, 12(76): 35-56. DOI: 10.11144/Javeriana.cdr12-76.epsa

Sepúlveda Rivera, I., Molina Otarola, R., Delgado-Serrano, M.M. and Guerrero Ginel, J. (2015). Aguas, riego y cultivos: Cambios y permanencias en los Ayllus de San Pedro de Atacama. Estudios Atacameños 51:185-206. DOI: 10.4067/S0718-10432015000200012

2014

Rentería Garita, C. and Delgado-Serrano, M.M. (2014). Social Capital Formation In Mexican Ejidos. Land decisions after the article 27 constitutional reform. Revista Internacional de Sociología, 72(1):9-33 DOI: 10.3989/ris.2011.09.01