Maria Shchepashchenko

Researcher

Novel Data Ecosystems for Sustainability Research Group

Advancing Systems Analysis Program

Biography

Maria Shchepashchenko is a researcher in the Novel Data Ecosystems for Sustainability Research Group of the IIASA Advancing Systems Analysis Program.

She has over 30 years of research and teaching experience in plant physiology, forest ecology, forest certification, and remote sensing.

Her most recent project involvements include: Open-Earth Monitor (OEMC), Mapping Forest Management (NEFM), and the Copernicus Global Land Cover and Tropical Forest Mapping and Monitoring service (LCFM).

Shchepashchenko holds a degree in forestry and a PhD in ecology from the Moscow State Forest University, as well as a Certificate of Associate Professor awarded by the State Committee for Higher Education of the Russian Federation. Before joining IIASA, she worked as a consultant in the Department of Environmental Sciences at Wageningen University in the Netherlands.

Last update: 05 AUG 2025

Publications

See, L. , Chen, Q., Crooks, A., Laso Bayas, J.C. , Fraisl, D. , Fritz, S. , Georgieva, I. , Hager, G. , Hofer, M. , Lesiv, M. , Malek, Z. , Milenkovic, M., Moorthy, I. , Orduña-Cabrera, F. , Pérez Guzmán, K. , Shchepashchenko, D. , Shchepashchenko, M. , Steinhauser, J. , & McCallum, I. (2025). New Directions in Mapping the Earth’s Surface with Citizen Science and Generative AI. iScience e111919. 10.1016/j.isci.2025.111919.

Fritz, S. , Lesiv, M. , See, L. , Shchepashchenko, D. , Pérez Guzmán, K. , Laso Bayas, J.C. , Shchepashchenko, M. , Georgieva, I. , Collivignarelli, F., Meroni, M., Kerdiles, H., Rembold, F., & McCallum, I. (2024). A new global hybrid map of annual herbaceous cropland at a 500 m resolution for the year 2019. Environmental Research Letters 19 (8) e084025. 10.1088/1748-9326/ad6a71.

Shchepashchenko, D. , Shchepashchenko, M. , Georgieva, I. , Lesiv, M. , & Blyshchyk, V. (2024). Drivers of biomass change in Europe: visual interpretation of a random sample. 10.5281/zenodo.13768692.

Lesiv, M. , Pérez Guzmán, K. , Shchepashchenko, M. , Collivignarelli, F., Kerdiles, H., Georgieva, I. , Laso Bayas, J.C. , & Fritz, S. (2024). Reference data set used to validate the hybrid cropland map at 500m (Fritz, S. 2024). 10.5281/zenodo.11517295.

Shchepashchenko, D. , See, L. , Lesiv, M. , McCallum, I. , Fritz, S. , Salk, C., Moltchanova, E., Perger, C., Shchepashchenko, M. , Shvidenko, A., Kovalevskyi, S., Gilitukha, D., Albrecht, F., Kraxner, F., Bun, A., Maksyutov, S., Sokolov, A., Dürauer, M., Obersteiner, M. , Karminov, V., & Ontikov, P. (2015). Global hybrid forest mask for the year 2000. 10.5281/zenodo.5559652.