Professor Petri Pellikka
Prof. Petri Pellikka is a distinguished scholar in the field of remote sensing of environment.
He carried out his MSc studies at the University of Helsinki, Finland, and PhD studies at Ludwig-Maximilan University in Munich, Germany. He was appointed as a first professor of geoinformatics at the University of Helsinki in 2002. He has worked as a post doc, visiting professor or scientist in Sudan, Canada, Belgium, Sweden, United Kingdom, New Zealand and China. He is currently a visiting professor at Wuhan University in China and University of Nairobi in Kenya. Please check more at: https://researchportal.helsinki.fi/en/persons/petri-pellikka
Petri started research on land cover change and its climatic impacts in Kenya, namely in Taita Taveta in 2003. He was the champion to found Taita Research Station of the University of Helsinki in 2009 and its director until 2024. He also established a Kenyan non-governmental organization called TERRA, which manages the research station. https://www.helsinki.fi/en/research-stations/taita-research-station
In Helsinki, he leads research programme in Biogeosciences and research group Earth Change Observation Laboratory www.helsinki.fi/echolab. He has supervised more than 75 MSc thesis and more than 35 PhD thesis and many of his students have come from the Global South, Kenya, Ethiopia and Sierra Leone. Some of his students are nowadays professors in Canada, Finland, China, the Netherlands and Ethiopia.
Petri is a chairman of the board of Spectral Mapping Services Ltd., Finland, which carries out airborne remote sensing campaigns around the World.
He is also a Member of the Finnish Academy of Sciences and Letters and the chairman of the Geosciences Group of the Science Section, 2024-. https://acadsci.fi/en/
Petri also served between 2006 and 2019 as a Master of the Tavastia College (Hämäläis-Osakunta) of the University of Helsinki, which is the largest college at the University of Helsinki established in 1653. https://hamalais-osakunta.fi/in-english
In 2025, he was invited to be the research director of the Finnish Southern Africa Institute, which is based in Namibia.
Select publications
- Abrego, N., …P. Pellikka,…,O. Ovaskainen, 2024. Airborne DNA metabarcoding reveals that fungi follow predictable spatial and seasonal dynamics at the global scale. Nature 631, 835–842. doi.org/10.1038/s41586-024-07658-9
- Abera, T., J. Heiskanen, E. Maeda, M. Muhammed, N. Bhandari, V. Vakkari, B. Hailu, P. Pellikka, A. Hemp, P. van Zyl & D. Zeuss, 2024. Deforestation amplifies climate change effects on warming and cloud level rise in African montane forests. Nature Communications 15:6992. doi.org/10.1038/s41467-024-51324-7
- Pellikka, P., M. Luotamo, N. Sädekoski, J. Hietanen, I. Vuorinne, M. Räsänen, J. Heiskanen, M. Siljander, K. Karhu & A. Klami, 2023. Tropical altitudinal gradient soil organic carbon and nitrogen estimation using Specim IQ portable imaging spectrometer. Science of the Total Environment 883, 163677. dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2023.163677
- Aalto, I.J., E.E. Maeda, J. Heiskanen, E.K. Aalto & P. K.E. Pellikka, 2022. Strong influence of trees outside forest in regulating microclimate of intensively modified Afromontane landscapes. Biogeosciences 19, 4227–4247, 2022, doi.org/10.5194/bg-19-4227-2022
- Abera, T.A., Heiskanen, J., E.E. Maeda, B.T. Hailu & P.K.E. Pellikka, 2022. Improved detection of abrupt change in vegetation reveals dominant fractional woody cover decline in Eastern Africa. Remote Sensing of Environment 271 11289 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rse.2022.112897
- Cuni-Sanchez, A., M.J.P. Sullivan, P. Platts, S.L. Lewis, R. Marchant, G…. H. Adhikari, J. Heiskanen, P. Pellikka, et al., 2021. High aboveground carbon stock of African tropical montane forests. Nature 596, 536–542. https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-021-03728-4
- Zhong, Y., Y. Su, S. Wu, Z. Zheng, J. Zhao, A. Ma, Q. Zhud, R. Ye, X. Li, P. Pellikka & L. Zhang, 2020. Open-source data-driven urban land-use mapping integrating point-line-polygon semantic objects: a case study of Chinese cities. Remote Sensing of Environment 247, 111838. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rse.2020.111838.
- Pellikka, P.K.E, V. Heikinheimo, J. Hietanen, E. Schäfer, M. Siljander & J. Heiskanen, 2018. Impact of land cover change on aboveground carbon stocks in Afromontane landscape in Kenya. Applied Geography 94:178-189. doi.org/10.1016/j.apgeog.2018.03.017
- Pellikka, P. & W.G. Rees, 2009 (eds). Remote Sensing of Glaciers – techniques for topographic, spatial and thematic mapping of glaciers. CRC Press, Taylor & Francis Group, Leiden, 340 p.
- Pellikka, P., M. Lötjönen, M. Siljander & L. Lens, 2009. Airborne remote sensing of spatiotemporal change (1955–2004) in indigenous and exotic forest cover in the Taita Hills, Kenya. International Journal of Applied Earth Observation and Geoinformation, 11(4):221–232. DOI: 10.1016/j.jag.2009.02.002
Select awards
- European Commission, DG International Partnerships, 2020-2025, 5 000 000 €. ESSA – Earth observation and environmental sensing for climate-smart sustainable agropastoral ecosystem transformation in East Africa. Consortium PI.
- Research Council of Finland, 2018-2022, 999 505 €. SMARTLAND – Environmental sensing of ecosystem services for developing climate smart landscape framework to improve food security in East Africa. Consortium PI.
- Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Finland, 2017–2020, 698 272 €. TAITAGIS – Improving capacity, quality and access of Geoinformatics teaching, research and daily use in Taita Taveta, Kenya. Higher Education Institutional Cooperation Instrument. PI.
- Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Finland, 2011–2015, 4 333 900 000 €. Climate Change Impacts on Ecosystem Services and Food Security in Eastern Africa – Increasing Knowledge, Building Capacity and Developing Adaptation Strategies. Champion for preparation of the project document, partner and PI. 862 748 €.
- European Commission, 5th Framework Programme, Energy, Environment and Sustainable Development, Global change, climate and biodiversity, 2001–2004, 2 260 908 €. OMEGA – Development of operational monitoring system for European glacial areas – synthesis of earth observation data of the present, past and future. EVK2-CT-2000-00069. Consortium PI.
Further links
Professor Petri Pellikka in keen on publishing in magazines and newspapers, but in Finnish. Some of the articles are found in: https://start.luma.fi/tahtiin-kirjoitettu/unelma-ammattina-kaukokartoittaja/
He has also been making films from his research in Kenya. Link to Water’s Journey at National Broad Company of Finland: https://areena.yle.fi/1-61218224 He is happy to present the film in English at Clare Hall College.
Some short clips in YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLj5tDGfY4CVq7ka1IuA9mepvi7Xy8OytY
Some clips also at the blog pages of the Taita Research Station: https://blogs.helsinki.fi/taita-research-station/movie-clips/
