https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/97961 Tue, 07 Apr 2026 23:14:02 GMT 2026-04-07T23:14:02Z https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/100793 Title: Environmental auditing : foundations of environmental planning : the Malta case Abstract: The Maltese political level seems keen to portray the archipelago with the environmental avant garde. Traditionally, 'green' concerns fail to spring strong roots within Maltese society. Local Councils, the Planning Authority, and the Parliamentary Secretariat for the Environment are the three key institutions which influence the Maltese environment. To date, environmental intervention was biased towards the visual and the spatial. 'Environmental Auditing' could prove the impetus which rectifies the balance between spatial and non-spatial 'green' intervention. 'Environmental Auditing' is a managerial process which generates a picture of a location's environmental condition. Of recent, manufacturing industry origin, 'environmental auditing' adapts to various private and public sector roles. This blurs its significance and meaning. 'State of the Environment Reports' are a novel public sector adaptation of 'environmental auditing'. Providing a general picture of a state's environmental condition, they act as the impetus for non-spatial environmental frameworks or plans. These lead to 'green' interventions. The altered environmental condition raises the need for yet another 'State of the Environment Report' - thus completing the ongoing cyclical process. 'Non-spatial environmental planning' is still being defined. Its 'environmental auditing' origins are but one approach. Nations are interdependent. Environmental issues do not respect national boundaries. Supranational concerns influence national environmental commitments. Concentrating on the Malta case, this is accentuated by the islands' European Union membership bid. Any institutional change has to be seen within this context - 'environmental auditing' and 'non-spatial environmental planning' introduction are no exceptions. Change can only come about if the context it targets is receptive. The Maltese political, decision making level seems to have taken 'environmental auditing' on board. Yet, society's recent 'greening' generates the need for non-spatial environmental intervention - 'pollution' is a main concern to many Maltese. Although not necessarily so, many query wealth generating processes. How do Maltese wealth generators react? Are they really 'green'? Would they voluntarily (or forcibly) subscribe to 'green' issues? Will they participate in an 'environmental auditing' scheme? Drawing together the contextual, the conceptual, the regulatory and the reactive, an 'environmental auditing' model for the Maltese islands emerges. This cyclical process combines private and public sector 'environmental auditing' concepts; together they act as the basis for 'non-spatial environmental planning'. With social and economic frameworks, they provide direction to the spatial planning process. Thus Environmental Auditing could prove the foundation of Environmental Planning within the Malta case. Description: PhD Sat, 01 Jan 1994 00:00:00 GMT https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/100793 1994-01-01T00:00:00Z https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/100414 Title: On the design of masonry shell structures Abstract: This thesis investigates the design of masonry shell structures. Design is understood to involve two main processes ; the first one is the specification of shape, form, and thickness and the second is the justification of such choices through the analysis of its behaviour. The thesis is therefore introduced by an extensive literature review of. first of all. the relevant material properties, such as strength, stiffness, anisotropy, and bi-axial stress states. as well as of some interesting construction techniques, based on minimal or no form work the premise being that the contemporary adoption, or otherwise, of masonry shells as a feasible structural solution depends on the "economics" of the construction process. The analysis of the strength of masonry arches and shells is reviewed extensively, with considerable emphasis given to the validity of the application of limit analysis to masonry shells. in view of the presence of finite friction. Techniques for the form-finding of shells and for the optimisation of such forms, are then finite element technique developed for studied. and a the finding of membrane thrust surfaces for shells incapable of carrying tension (as properties) . The technique is based on the solution of having possibly orthotropic the partial differential equation relating shape, stress and loading, given a specific loading regime, and specific boundary conditions. The stress distribution, satisfying the given boundary and material conditions, is obtained, not on the basis of a trial-and-error approach, as is often the case, but on a plane stress analysis of the horizontal projection of the shell. The resultant shape hence automatically satisfies the boundary conditions. Various examples of the results of such method are given. Description: PhD Thu, 01 Jan 1987 00:00:00 GMT https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/100414 1987-01-01T00:00:00Z https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/99494 Title: L'architettura autoctona maltese : origini, sviluppo e conservazione nella città di Mdina Abstract: Questo studio esamina l'evoluzione storica dell'insediamento, la genesi e lo sviluppo dell'architettura autoctona nell'isola di Malta finalizzata alla migliore conoscenza, controllo e gestione del patrimonio. La tesi tenta di tracciare lo sviluppo dell'architettura maltese nella vecchia capitale Mdina, dove !'influenza dei cavalieri di Malta non si e sentita fino all'ultimo secolo della loro dominazione, a causa di una serie d'eventi storici. Pertanto la conservazione dell'architettura autoctona e stata facilitata da quest'isolamento parziale. La citta di Mdina e contraddistinta da peculiarita che la rendono una testimonianza quasi unica; prima fra tutte, la sua posizione geografica e geologica. La citta poggia su una rupe di calcarenite corallina, pasta su uno strato d'argilla di limitata estensione, e cio ha contribuito al mantenimento fine ad oggi di un tessuto urbano medievale e barocco pressoche intatto, pur avendo radici punico-romane ancora leggibili e testimonianze indicative delle trasformazioni moderne perfettamente integrate. Oggi, causa un boom turistico, ii fabbricato della citta e minacciato dalle forze economiche, che tentano di attirare ii visitatore a passare piu tempo negli edifici e di spendere di piu per massimiμ:are i profitti. Malgrado ii riuso di quasi tutti gli edifici della citta, per tanto tempo in uno state di abbandono, queste forze non giovano alla reale conservazione della citta e della sua autenticita, perche manca la base legislativa per assicurare la conservazione non solo delle strutture ma anche dei loro valori intrinseci. La stratificazione della citta plurimillenaria e colma d'elementi e strutture autoctone. Siccome mancano studi seri sugli elementi autoctoni maltesi, ii loro significato e stato ignorato in modo tale rhc questi sonu in perlcolo immlnente di essere spazzati via da nuove e false componenti, spacciati per autoctone, e quindi a scomparire per sempre. Pertanto la citta, proprio per la qualita del suo patrimonio monumentale, storico, artistico ed autoctono, merita una serie di particolari cure da parte degli enti pubblici in vista delle ragioni citate sopra ed e quindi essenziale mettere a punto criteri di gestione che portino alla conservazione della sua autenticita. Description: M.A. Tue, 01 Jan 2002 00:00:00 GMT https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/99494 2002-01-01T00:00:00Z https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/99488 Title: La torre & cappella di S. Cecilia a Gozo : un progetto di conservazione Abstract: 'La piu antica cappella di Gozo e in pericolo!', 'Un altro monumento sacrificato sull'altare rlel progresso!', cosi e stata la mia introduzione alla contrada di S. Cecilia, con la sua cappella medievale e il suo torre tardo-rinascimentale: un'introduzione brusca e fredda a un luogo tranquillo dove, successivamente, ho trascorso delle ore a pensare, riflettere e capire la storia del isola e del popolo del isola di Gozo attraverso lo studio di questa piccola contrada, in quel momenta minacciata dall'imminente costruzione del aeroporto internazionale di Gozo. Oggi, tre anni dopo che sono apparsi quei grossi titoli di giornale, la situazione e decisamente cambiata e causa una feroce campagna dai gruppi ambientalisti, lo sviluppo si e ridotto a un piccolo eliporto abbastanza distante dagli edifici sotto studio, quale studio e stato voluto dagli stessi gruppi ambientalisti. Description: M.A. Sat, 01 Jan 1994 00:00:00 GMT https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/99488 1994-01-01T00:00:00Z