The Volume 20 Number 1 (2017) issue of the Journal of Environmental Science and Management (JESAM), a peer-reviewed international scientific journal, was published this June 2017. This regular issue features ten articles primarily on environmental pollution from five countries: Nigeria (1); China (2); India (2); Iran (3); and the Philippines (2).

Recognizing the importance of an effective pollution control system to address metal pollution in soil, the article from Nigeria presents a case in which the distribution of toxic metals in topsoil as well as their bioaccumulation in wild flora around a metal scrap factory was studied.

The two papers from China relate similar topic of addressing environmental pollution particularly on the desulfurization performance and mechanism of pyrolysis to address air pollution caused by sulfur dioxide, and on the degradation of aniline with bismuth oxyiodide (BiOI) which could benefit photocatalytic applications in wastewater treatment.

Similarly, an article from India explored the use of weighted overlay analysis mapping to identify pollution sensitive areas, while the other article examined the application of GIS to optimise solid waste collection. 

A paper from Iran, on the other hand, discusses the importance of evaluating the diversity and distribution of plant species for effective environmental management. The other paper considers the limit of urban capacity by evaluating carrying capacity using GIS-based model combined with TOPSIS (Technique for Order Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution) along with Fuzzy modelling in Geographic Information System (GIS) environ as a Spatial Decision Support System (SDSS). The third paper estimated the energy potential of solar radiation using experimental models and statistical relationships of radiation with other climatic elements.

In the Philippines, an instrument to measure School Adaptive Capacity Index (SACI) was developed to assess the institutional adaptive capacities of schools to floods. The other article looked into the transformation trends in an urbanizing landscape by employing landscape dynamics and GIS analyzed in the context of ASEAN integration.

The full articles of this and previous issues of JESAM may be accessed through http://jesam-uplb.org/issue.php andhttps://journals.uplb.edu.ph/index.php/JESAM/issue/archive. Hard copies of the journal are also available through subscription. Inquiries may be sent to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.“>[email protected].

JESAM is indexed by the Thomson-Reuters Web of Science (Science Citation Index Expanded (SciSearch®), Journal Citation Reports/Science Edition, Current Contents®/Agriculture, Biology and Environmental Sciences), Elsevier BV Sciverse Scopus, and CABI. It is also accredited by the Philippine Commission on Higher Education (CHED) Journal Accreditation Services (CHED-JAS). It is published online and in print semi-annually by the School of Environmental Science and Management (SESAM), University of the Philippines Los Baños (UPLB). (Cherry S. Padilla)