Elena Marie Enseñado
Specialist in Nature-based Climate Change Adaptation Planning, PhD Candidate
- Email address
- ensenado@ihs.nl
- Phone
- +31104082345
Elena Marie Enseñado is an urban environment, sustainability, and climate change specialist. Her interests include policy learning for socio-technical transitions and social-ecological resilience, climate change and environmental planning, ecosystem services and nature-based solutions, and participatory tools and methods.
At IHS, Elena is engaged in research, advisory, education, and capacity-building activities. She brings extensive experience in project development, management, monitoring, and evaluation, with a proven ability to engage diverse stakeholders in multi-disciplinary projects. Her key project involvements at IHS include the following:
- NURISH: NURturing transformative capacities, Innovation in NBS and Harmonious resilience in rural areas (European Commission - Horizon Europe Programme, 2025-2029);
- SCORE: Smart Control of the Climate Resilience in European Coastal Cities (European Commission - Horizon 2020 Programme, 2021-2025);
- PROSPECT: Peer Powered Cities and Regions (European Commission - Horizon 2020 Programme, 2017-2020);
- SUSTAIN: Strengthening higher education in Urban Sustainability and Transitions towards internationalization of Academic Institutions and Networks (European Commission, 2013-2016);
- Covenant CapaCITY: Capacity building of local governments to advance Local Climate and Energy Action (European Commission, 2010-2013).
Her work at IHS encompasses projects across diverse regions, including Europe, Asia, Africa, and South America. She has collaborated on initiatives supported by different organizations such as the European Commission, the Netherlands Enterprise Agency, NUFFIC, UN-Habitat, Resilient Delta Initiative, and Erasmus Trust Funds.
She has also contributed to publications, including UN Habitat's Sustainable urbanization in the Paris Agreement : Comparative Review of Nationally Determined Contributions for urban content, and the Urban Climate Change Research Network's Third Assessment Report on Climate Change and Cities, specifically on the topic of nature-based solutions.
Elena joined IHS in 2013 after completing her Master's degree in Urban Management and Development with a specialization in Urban Environmental Management and Climate Change. Prior to her graduate studies in the Netherlands, she worked on various development projects spanning the public, private, and civil society sectors in the Philippines from 2006 to 2012.
| Tiwari, A., Campos Rodrigues, L., Caruso, R., Enseñado, E.M., Makousiari, E., and Gharbia, S. (2025). Multi-criteria analysis of ecosystem-based adaptation strategies for flood risk reduction in Irish, Italian, and Turkish Coastal City Living Labs. Sustainable Futures. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sftr.2025.101506 |
| Enseñado, E. M., Edelenbos, J., & van den Dool, L. (2025). City-to-city learning on climate change policy: dynamics at the individual and organizational levels. Journal of Environmental Planning and Management, 1–22. https://doi.org/10.1080/09640568.2025.2492707 |
| Enseñado, E. M., Edelenbos, J., Van den Dool, L. (2025). The rules of engagement: Conditions for city-to-city learning on climate change policy. Environmental Policy and Governance. https://doi.org/10.1002/eet.70007 |
| Quadros Aniche, L., Edelenbos, J., Gianoli, A., Enseñado, E. M., Makousiari, E., DeLosRíos-White, M. I., Caruso, C. and Zalokar, S. (2024). Boosting co-creation of Nature-based Solutions within Living Labs: Interrelating enablers using interpretive structural modelling, Environmental Science and Policy, 161, 103873, (First online 30 August 2024) https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envsci.2024.103873 |
| Quadros Aniche, L., Edelenbos, J., Gianoli, A., Caruso, R., DeLosRíos-White, M. I., Wissink-Nercua, C. P., Undabeitia, A., Enseñado, E. M. and Gharbia, S. (2024). Contextualizing and generalizing drivers and barriers of urban living labs for climate resilience. Environmental Policy and Governance, 34(5), 490-523, (First online 17 January 2024) https://doi.org/10.1002/eet.2097 |
| Enseñado, E. M. (2023). City-to-city learning: a synthesis and research agenda. Journal of Environmental Policy and Planning, (First online 13 November 2023) https://doi.org/10.1080/1523908X.2023.2281426 |
| Riera-Spiegelhalder, M., Campos-Rodrigues, L., Enseñado, E. M., Dekker-Arlain, J. den, Papadopoulou, O., Arampatzis, S. & Vervoort, K. (2023). Socio-economic assessment of ecosystem-based and other adaptation strategies in coastal areas: A systematic review. Journal of Marine Science and Engineering, 11(2), 319, (First online 02 February 2023) https://doi.org/10.3390/jmse11020319 |
| Noble, K. and Enseňado, E. M. (2022). Analyzing co-creation of urban living labs in Europe. Visions for Sustainability, 18, 7060, 1-16. http://dx.doi.org/10.13135/2384-8677/7060 |
| Ye, L., Peng, X., Quadros Aniche, L., Scholten, P. and Enseñado, E. M. (2021). Urban renewal as policy innovation in China : from growth stimulation to sustainable development. Public Administration and Development, 41(1), 23-33. (First online 23 March 2 021) https://doi.org/10.1002/pad.1903 |
| Edelenbos, J., Molenveld, A., Mojanchevska, M., Enseñado, E. M., Budding-Polo Ballinas, M., Esteban, A., Ruijsink, S., Igalla, M. and Tsatsou, A. (2020). Community-based initiatives in the urban realm what conditions their performance?, Journal of Environmental Planning and Management, 64(9), 1689-1712. (First online 01 December 2020) https://doi.org/10.1080/09640568.2020.1837088 |
| Enseñado, E. M. and Heemann, J. (2020). How can peer-to-peer learning support energy transition in cities and regions? In L van den Dool and L. Schaap (Eds.) Strategies for urban network learning (Palgrave studies in sub-national governance) (pp. 255-280). Cham: Palgrave Macmillan. https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-030-36048-1 |
| Enseñado, E. M. and Grafakos, S. (2017). Multiple criteria analysis in low carbon urban development : a review of applications in low-and-middle income countries. In: M. P. van Dijk, J. Edelenbos and K. van Rooijen (Eds.) Urban governance in the realm of complexity, (pp.141-167). Rugby: Practical Action Publishing |
| Grafakos, S., Enseñado, E. M. and Flamos, A. (2016). Developing an integrated sustainability and resilience framework of indicators for the assessment of low-carbon energy technologies at the local level. International Journal of Sustainable Energy, 36(10), 945–71. (First online 08 March 2016) https://doi.org/10.1080/14786451.2015.1130709 |
| Grafakos, S., Enseñado, E. M., Flamos, A. and Rotmans, J. (2015). Mapping and measuring European local governments’ priorities for a sustainable and low-carbon energy future. Energies, 8(10), 11641-11666. (First online 16 October 2015) https://doi.org/10.3390/en81011641 |
| Grafakos, S., Flamos, A. and Enseñado, E. M. (2015). Preferences matter : a constructive approach to incorporating local stakeholders’ preferences in the sustainability evaluation of energy technologies. Sustainability, 7(8), 10922-10960. (First online 11 August 2015) https://doi.org/10.3390/su70810922 |