One small state's preparation for climate change : building an integrated socio-technic informational infrastructure

Abstract

Very few countries can afford to ignore the potential repercussions emanating from climate change. However, few afford to take the steps to ensure the laying of full-coverage groundwork structures that ensure future analytical studies. This paper deals with the stepped-approach taken by a Mediterranean island state, to ensure the creation of a baseline structure that covers all the territory in terms of physical, natural and social environments. Malta has taken on the task to implement a series of measures aimed at integrating environmental, spatial planning and social data in line with the implementation of the Aarhus Convention, the INSPIRE Directive and the SEIS initiative. The implementation of a project entitled "Developing national environmental infrastructure and capacity" co-financed under the 2007-2013 European Regional Development Funds (Structural Funds) Programme for Malta, is targeted to take national environmental monitoring capacity from a semi-analogue state to a fully interactive online system. This initiative has resulted in the creation of tools that scientists and the general public can access for their respective studies. The resultant hardware, software, innovative scans of the terrestrial and bathymetric domains, as well as the freely disseminated SEIS-based systems have created the right scenario for the analysis of climate change.