Vol. 5 No. 1 (2019): Melanesian Journal of Geomatics and Property Studies (MJGPS) Volume 5 - 2019

Editorial Note

Welcome to the fifth edition of Melanesian Journal of Geomatics and Property Studies. Founded in 2015, the journal informs and inspires academics, researchers and graduate students interested in the broad areas of geomatics, real estate, environmental planning and regional analysis. Having successfully emerged from the initial era of weak research culture in our department, we have now achieved our goal of instilling a trend of collegiality and collaboration amongst the national and expatriate academics, and graduate students to publish research findings of applied nature that are geared towards making nations around the world sustainable.

We are pleased to share interesting current research findings in our Journal, which we hope would be of interest to the broader environmental research community. Our primary goal is to encourage research that is relevant to the society and our University’s Strategic Plan’s vision and mission of producing technocrats for the nation, while simultaneously aligning with PNG’s Vision 2050 and the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals.

The current Volume 5 of the Journal presents five (5) interesting peer-reviewed papers covering diverse topics ranging from squatter settlements, land taxation, cocoa cultivation and land use-land cover classification, to entrepreneurship education in institutions of higher learning. We have continued to raise the international stature of the journal by featuring a paper from Nigeria on ‘Real estate and urban planning professionalism: the impact of entrepreneurship education on innate talent, self-employment propensity and consultancy practice.’

We encourage you to consider publishing your research findings in our Journal. Great researchers don’t procrastinate. Start today and take the small steps that will incrementally build your research profile since ‘Rome was not built in a day.’ Our editorial staff are always ready to assist you all the way as we work together as partners to build a sustainable world through cutting-edge research.

Happy reading and compliments of the season!

Sincerely,

Jacob A. Babarinde, PhD, FRICS, MCIP/RPP, Cert. Ed. (Lond) (Chartered & Regd. Estate Surveyor, Ontario-Regd. Planner & Licensed Realtor) Professor and Head of Department, Surveying and Land Studies, PNG University of Technology