The Editorial Board of Environment Systems & Decisions is proud to present the first issue of 2016. This issue is comprised of regular submissions representing modeling and analytical techniques applied to a cross-section of research domains including network science, conservation ecology, and transportation planning.

This issue features a varied array of topics and application areas. Inanloo et al. (2016) report on a model of the dispersion behavior of accidentally released hazardous materials based on weather, land use, and cargo characteristics. Dillon and Tinsley (2016) describe a series of experiments investigating the disaster preparedness behavior of participants provided information about near-miss events. Next, Huettmann et al. (2016) present findings of seabirds and marine mammals sighted off of the coast of Iceland and the Faroe Islands. Kizhisseri and Mohamed (2016) develop and implement a fuzzy logic tool for classification of pollution levels contained in wastewater. In an application to vehicular navigation, Paul (2016) describes a method for modeling the movement of vehicles within a transportation network. Smith et al. (2016) propose a methodology to quantify the impact of information to an intelligence analyst within the context of networked data, with a case study related to Twitter posts. Next, we feature a review article on resilience and vulnerability analysis of food systems, through a modeling paradigm of social-ecological systems (Prosperi et al. 2016).

Finally, Tom et al. (2016a) analyze the life cycle benefits and impacts, including energy use, blue water footprint, and greenhouse gas emissions, of different dietary regimes. This article garnered the attention of news outlets and internet blogs, including the Washington Post, Huffington Post, and Vice Magazine, in part due to somewhat sensationalized press releases with headlines such as “Carnegie Mellon Study Finds Eating Lettuce Is More Than Three Times Worse in Greenhouse Gas Emissions Than Eating Bacon” (Rea 2015). In a letter to the editor, Kim et al. (2016) point out that, in agreement with the findings of Tom et al. (2016a), reductions in seafood and red meat consumption do in fact have life cycle benefits in terms climate change mitigation and that plant-based foods are lower in greenhouse gas intensity. The authors of the original article provide a response, agreeing and reinforcing that their study did not seek to compare vegetarian and non-vegetarian diets, and that many of the articles posted online extrapolated erroneously from the results stated in the research (Tom et al. 2016b). We thank all of the authors for their thoughtful contributions to scholarly discourse.

Looking to the future, the Editorial Board of Environment Systems & Decisions is planning several special issues including an issue on “Decision Analysis in Economics and Finance,” “Risk Around the World,” and an issue featuring the research of students, post-docs, and early career professionals.

Finally, we welcome several new members to the Editorial Board, representing the same diversity in geography and subject-matter expertise that make the submissions to Environment Systems & Decisions a unique and valuable contribution to the academic literature.