Eric
Koomen
Associate Professor
Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, dept. of Spatial Economics
Dr. Eric Koomen is associate professor at the Department of Spatial Economics of VU University Amsterdam in the Netherlands. His research interests include land-use change analysis, spatial modelling and policy support with a focus on urban development processes, impact assessment, climate adaptation and policy evaluation. He has managed many research projects related to these topics in various countries around the world, for example developing land-use models to support spatial planning. Eric was also responsible for education-related projects that aimed to train professionals on specific spatial analysis tools. Currently, he teaches courses on ‘Land-use change’ and ‘Imaging and assessing landscapes’ in the Earth science and Economics programme and he is tutor for the ‘Urban Environment Lab’ at Amsterdam University College and ‘GIS and Environmental Impact Assessment’ in the UNIGIS MSc programme. In addition he supervises BSc and MSc theses and PhD research. Eric has edited or co-authored three books and published over 70 papers in scientific and applied journals and books. In his research and teaching Eric focusses on the causes and consequences of urban development. This research involves data retrieved from novel data sources (LIDAR, luminosity, mobile phone data etc.), spatial analysis using GIS and econometric techniques and the application of advanced modelling tools to simulate future conditions. In addition to doing scientific research Eric is keen on applying his obtained knowledge in more practice oriented consultancy projects for regional authorities, national research institutes, the World Bank, the Asian Development Bank, the European Commission, the OECD and others. Application domains include simulating urban development scenarios, assessing the impacts of such developments and analysing the effect of spatial planning.