Susan Vermeulen MSc

From data to insight
Rotterdam Maritime City

Researcher Urban and Transport Economics

Email address
s.j.vermeulen@ese.eur.nl
Phone
+31 (0)10 408 11 86
Room
Woudestein, T-Gebouw, Kamer T19-29
Space
Mandeville Building

Biography

Susan Vermeulen is a researcher at Erasmus UPT. She is specialized in (spatial) data analysis, GIS and surveys’ techniques. In her research Susan tries to combine different data sources in an innovative way to create new insights in urban and transport related projects.

From data to insight

In the last years, Susan has worked on several projects involving large-scale data analysis. In the projects Rotterdams Talent & Thuishaven voor Talent Susan has used scraping and text analysis techniques to understand the current skills that are required in the job market in the Rotterdam area. For projects such as Short term rental house prices in Amsterdam and the H2020 SMARTDEST, she has combined various data sources to create indicators and maps.

Next to working with existing data, Susan designs surveys to collect new information. She applied this technique in various projects, such as Mobiliteitschallenge Hoogkwartier, Rotterdams Talent, RTHA Benchmark analysis and RESOLVE. Susan ensures that the right questions are asked, and the survey is designed into perfection.

Research interests

  • Sustainable transport
  • Urban logistics
  • Urban & regional economics
  • Mobility
  • Parking
  • Tourism

Methodological expertise

  • GIS analysis
  • Combining open data sources
  • Scraping
  • Survey design

Education

Susan teaches and supervises students both at bachelor and master level. She teaches in the following courses:

  • Advanced Empirical Methods (ESE)
  • Premaster (MCD)
  • Research & Design Methods (MCD)

    A selection of Susan Vermeulen's recent projects.

    Description: This project aims to get insights in the behavior of car drivers in the Netherlands making use parking transactions generated by Parkmobile customers. The outcome consists of maps, descriptive statistics and simple calculations that provide a comprehensive overview of the parking behavior in different Dutch cities.

    Status: Active project
    Duration: 2020 - 2021
    Client: Parkmobile

    Description: SMARTDEST is an H2020 project aiming at developing innovative solutions for the social conflicts and externalities that are produced by tourism-related mobilities in cities. The role of UPT within this project is to focus on mapping the historical trends and combining data to create new insights.

    Status: Active project
    Duration: 2020-...
    Client: EU-funded H2020 Research Project

    Description: POTEnT (Public Organisation Transform Energy Transition) innovatively addresses a key challenge for European cities and regions: how to achieve more carbon reduction by harnessing the potential of direct and local action by citizens and communities. Our focus is on enhancing the interregional learning of the partners.

    Status: Active project
    Duration: 2019-...
    Client: EU-funded INTERREG Project

    Description: The RESOLVE project addresses two urgent challenges in European cities: the declining retail sector and the increasing need to reduce CO2. Cities created several interventions to promote sustainable transport to the inner-city. Our focus is to assist with the monitoring aspect of the projects. We designed surveys, analyzed the surveys.

    Status: Project completed
    Duration: 2016 - 2019
    Client: EU-funded INTERREG Project

    Description: A real-life experiment where 90 residents of the city of Rotterdam used shared mobility for about two months. UPT has monitored their behavior and their attitude towards shared mobility. The results suggest that citizens’ attitude towards cars did not change over time and that shared mobility has some start-up problems that should be addressed by good policy making.

    Status: Project completed
    Duration: 2019
    Client: City of Rotterdam

    Description: The Talentprofile project investigates the future skills needed for the City of Rotterdam and specifically for the maritime sector. This projected involved multiple research methods such as text analysis on vacancies, interviews, and surveys. The report identified multiple talent profiles and identified the opportunities to enhance the future skills in the city of Rotterdam, such as integrating initiatives, more soft skills in scientific studies and a life-long learning attitude.

    Status: Project completed
    Duration: 2019
    Client: City of Rotterdam

    Description: This study investigates the impact of the emergence and growth of short-term rental services in Amsterdam. Its aim is: “to assess the linkage between the rise of Airbnb listings), the affordability of housing expressed by house prices and the development of quality of life.” Results suggests a complex dynamic between STRs and the city. On the one hand, in certain areas the presence of STRs is statistically correlated with higher house prices and a high quality of life, while in other areas the opposite appears to be the case. It can therefore not be said that STRs are in a specific relationship with the city as a whole, but rather that it relates in different ways.

    Status: Project completed
    Duration: 2019
    Client: European Commission

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