https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/11476 Sat, 24 Oct 2026 23:36:04 GMT 2026-10-24T23:36:04Z https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/150274 Title: Aware but absent : understanding Maltese youth disengagement from environmental activism Abstract: Despite widespread environmental awareness among young people, participation in collective environmental activism remains persistently low. This qualitative study investigates the barriers deterring Maltese youth aged 18–24 from engaging in environmental activism, where political culture, small-island social dynamics, and limited qualitative research create a distinct gap in the literature. Four semi-structured focus groups were conducted with 26 participants reporting limited or no prior involvement in environmental activism, and data were analysed using Braun and Clarke's (2006, 2021) thematic analysis framework. Four key themes were identified: distrust in political institutions and a belief that activism produces little tangible change; heightened concerns about reputational and professional consequences within Malta's small, interconnected society; a tendency to individualise environmental responsibility, favouring low-risk private behaviours over collective action; and structural barriers including time pressures, transport limitations, and weak institutional support. The findings challenge dominant interpretations of the awareness–action gap, suggesting that youth disengagement is better understood as a rational, contextually grounded response to perceived inefficacy, social risk, and structural constraint, rather than apathy. The study contributes to debates on political trust, civic individualisation, and small-state activism, and offers recommendations for NGOs, educators, and policymakers seeking to bridge the gap between environmental concern and active participation. Description: B.Sc. (Hons)(Melit.) Thu, 01 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/150274 2026-01-01T00:00:00Z https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/150271 Title: A meteorological analysis of recent extreme weather events in Bulgaria Abstract: Climate change is altering the background conditions in which weather and climate extremes occur, with important consequences for ecosystems, infrastructure, human health and economies (IPCC, 2021; European Environment Agency, 2025). Against this broader climatic context, this dissertation examines three recent extreme-weather events in Bulgaria: the Kresna wildfire of 24-29 August 2017, the Sofia flash flood of 6-7 July 2020, and the severe hailstorm of 29 May 2022. It adopts a comparative event-based framework to show how differing atmospheric mechanisms can generate very different hazards within the same national setting. The Kresna case is interpreted as a multi-day fire-weather episode shaped by heat, dryness, lack of rainfall and wind. The Sofia case is analysed as a localised convective flood affecting an urban environment, where the key lesson is that reanalysis point rainfall alone is insufficient to explain impact. The hailstorm case highlights the combined role of instability, moisture, vertical motion and upper-level support, with independent severe-weather sources confirming that hail occurred. Across all three cases, it is argued that reliable interpretation depends on triangulating different products rather than relying on a single model field. The findings show that Bulgarian extreme weather is best understood through hazard-specific analysis that links atmospheric conditions, local setting and impact verification. This approach offers a clearer basis for interpreting fire-weather risk, convective flooding and severe hail in Bulgaria, and it demonstrates the value of combining reanalysis, archive maps and independent event evidence in the assessment of extreme weather. Description: B.Sc. (Hons)(Melit.) Thu, 01 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/150271 2026-01-01T00:00:00Z https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/150269 Title: Mapping maritime pollution risk and coastal vulnerability around Malta Abstract: Maritime transport is essential to global trade and island connectivity, but it also creates persistent environmental risks for coastal states located near major shipping corridors. Malta is particularly exposed because of its central Mediterranean position, proximity to dense cargo and tanker traffic, and dependence on coastal resources, tourism, fisheries, and marine infrastructure. This project assessed maritime pollution risk and coastal vulnerability around the Maltese Islands by integrating Automatic Identification System (AIS) vessel-position data, OpenDrift oil-spill simulations, and GIS-based shoreline exposure mapping. AIS data were used to identify two maritime corridors of interest; an offshore northern corridor, and a nearshore south-eastern corridor. Randomized release points were generated within these corridor boundaries and used as starting locations for OpenDrift/OpenOil simulations of a 10 cubic meters generic diesel release under selected wind, wave, and surface-current conditions. Model outputs were exported as particle trajectory data and mapped in GIS to evaluate offshore dispersion, nearshore movement, and coastal-contact patterns. Results showed that offshore scenarios generally remained separated from the Maltese coastline during the modelled period, while nearshore scenarios produced greater coastal relevance, including trajectories moving adjacent to Malta and particles classified as stranded or coastal-contact points. Coastal-contact locations were spatially uneven, with exposure concentrated along selected eastern, south-eastern, and southern shoreline sectors. These findings indicate that maritime pollution risk around Malta is shaped by the interaction between vessel location, environmental forcing, release proximity, and coastal receptors. The workflow provides a spatial decision-support framework for monitoring, emergency-response planning, and future coastal vulnerability assessment. Description: MSc. (EMS)(Melit.) Thu, 01 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/150269 2026-01-01T00:00:00Z https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/150267 Title: Marine heatwaves in the central Mediterranean : frequency and spatial distribution (2008-2025) Abstract: The Mediterranean Sea is warming faster than the global ocean average, making its semi enclosed, relatively shallow basin particularly exposed to extreme thermal events. Marine Heatwaves (MHWs), prolonged periods of anomalously high ocean temperature, offer an ecologically meaningful way to characterize this warming because they capture disruptive extremes rather than gradual mean trends. This study quantifies the frequency of surface MHWs in the waters around the Maltese Islands, including the 12-nautical-mile territorial sea and the 25-nautical-mile Fisheries Management Zone (FMZ), over a 17-year period from 2008-2025. Daily ultra-high-resolution sea surface temperature analyses from the Copernicus Marine Service were used to construct, for every grid cell, a seasonally varying daily 90thpercentile threshold. Following the minimum-duration criterion of Hobday et al. (2016), periods in which temperature exceeded this threshold for at least five consecutive days were classified as MHW events, and events were counted for every grid cell and mapped across the domain. A representative cell south of Malta was used to validate the detection procedure. Across the domain, the mid-August 90th-percentile threshold ranged from 27.7 °C to 29.6 °C (mean 28.6 °C), and the number of detected events per grid cell over the study period ranged from 26 to 53, with a domain mean of approximately 40. Exposure was spatially uneven. Event frequency was highest in the western and northwestern waters and lowest in the waters immediately south and southeast of the Maltese Islands. At the validation cell, 37 events were detected, and threshold exceedances recurred in most summers, becoming more frequent toward the end of the record, with the warmest peak in 2023. These results show that recurrent surface thermal extremes are pervasive but spatially structured across Maltese waters, with direct relevance to fisheries management, marine spatial planning, and climate-adaptation planning. Methodological limitations, including a simplified climatology, a surface-only focus, and a baseline drawn from a warming period, are discussed, and depth-resolved analysis is identified as a priority for future work. Description: MSc. (EMS)(Melit.) Thu, 01 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/150267 2026-01-01T00:00:00Z