TEAMWIRE and heritage research presented by UM at GPR Italy Conference 2025

Prof. Sebastiano D’Amico, Dr Emanuele Colica, and Dr Chiara Torre from the Department of Geosciences, Faculty of Science, recently presented two researchers at an international conference held from 10–12 September 2025 at La Sapienza University in Rome, Italy.

The event, organised by the Italian Association of Georadar in occasion of the 10th year from its foundation, was entitled “GPR Italy Conference” and focused on the wide range of applications of Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR) technology, including engineering and urban studies, cultural heritage, environmental monitoring, forensics, and planetary exploration.

Over the three days, participants from universities, research institutes, and industry and technology partners across Italy and abroad (including Malta, China, Korea, and Sri Lanka) had the opportunity to present their research, attend live demonstrations of the latest GPR instruments provided by the partners, and test them first-hand.

The oral presentation entitled “Monitoring the water infrastructure: the TEAMWIRE project”, delivered by Dr Chiara Torre, focused on the TEAMWIRE project, a 24-months project funded by the Energy and Water Agency, coordinated by the University of Malta in collaboration with the Italian National Research Council (CNR). The presentation highlighted one of today’s most pressing issues: water scarcity due to pipeline leakages. The project aims to promote environmental sustainability and reduce underground leaks by implementing innovative technologies for the early detection, integrating TDR and GPR with the GPS system.

Dr Emanuele Colica delivered an oral presentation entitled “Investigating medieval religious architecture in the Central Mediterranean: a GPR study of St Anne’s Church at Fort St Angelo, Malta”. This work, carried out in collaboration with Prof. Charlene Vella from the Department of Art and Art History, Faculty of Arts, discussed the use of GPR, supplemented by terrestrial Lidar scans and high-resolution satellite imagery, as a non-invasive method to investigate the hidden architectural features of the Church of St Anne, located at the tip of the Birgu peninsula.

Both presentations attracted significant attention and fostered exchanges with several researchers and professors who have long-standing experience in the field. These interactions not only provided valuable feedback and diverse perspectives but also opened up promising prospects for future collaborations.