Derek Van Berkel

Derek Van Berkel is an Assistant Professor at the University of Michigan's School for Environment and Sustainability (SEAS) within the Geospatial Data Sciences department. His research focuses on the human dimensions of land-cover/land-use change and ecosystem services using spatial analysis, geovisualizations, and machine learning.

• Education:
  • Ph.D. in Spatial Analysis and Decision Support, VU University Amsterdam (2012)
  • M.S. in Human Geography and Urban Planning, Utrecht University (2007)
  • B.A. in Human Geography, University of Calgary (2004)

His work addresses landscape management tradeoffs, conservation planning for valued places, and sustainable community development. He leverages social theory, big data, agent-based modeling, and spatial statistics to tackle environmental challenges like climate migration and flood resilience.

Recent projects include GLISA (Co-PI) for Great Lakes flood resilience and NSF-funded climate migration studies in Lake Victoria Basin and Great Lakes regions. He develops tools like the PPGISr R package for public participatory GIS applications.

Van Berkel's interdisciplinary research integrates social media data, LiDAR, and spatial-temporal modeling to enhance sustainability science. His lab at SEAS emphasizes data-driven approaches to landscape conservation and equitable resource distribution.