Photo: Xrobb l-Għaġin Neolithic Structure part of which was claimed by coastal erosion. (Photo: Ruben Paul Borg)

Climate-MATCH (Mainstreaming of Climate Adaptation for Horizontal Coordination in Malta) is a project that aims to address the issue of Integrated Climate Policy and Adaptation Action Mapping across various sectors within Maltese Government. The project was commissioned by the Public Works Department (PWD) and the Ministry for Environment, Enterprise and Regeneration of the Grand Harbour (MEER) under the TSI2023 flagship project funding. The University of Malta is working in collaboration with the EUCC (Coastal and Marine Union).

The project is divided into three components, each with their own objectives:

• Climate-CAPPING: Coherent Adaptation Policy and Planning with Integrated Knowledge and Governance for Climate Change (horizontal component), aims to establish a holistic and umbrella framework to bridge multi-level planning instruments to support a coherent adaptation policy and planning with integrated knowledge and governance for climate change.
• Coastal-PRISM: Preparation towards Risk Interdisciplinary Surveillance and Management in Coastal areas, which focuses on enhancing technical and cooperation capacities for risk preparedness by introducing interdisciplinary methods for surveillance and management in coastal areas.
• CHeriSH: Coastal Heritage and Safeguards against Hazards (vertical component) a more detailed (as a typical) specialised approach to address climate/other impacts through structural vulnerability analysis of buildings to focus on Coastal Heritage. This will develop diverse and specialised analysis, of the structural behaviour and vulnerability of different heritage assets at risk from coastal-climate changes and other hazards in a multi-risk environment.

The University of Malta team, leading the CHeriSH component, is made up of Prof. Ruben Paul Borg, Prof. Marc Bonello, Prof. Reuben Grima, Dr Shirley Cefai, Ms Lucia Buhagiar and Ms Annukka Koppen from the Faculty for the Built Environment, together with Prof. Sebastiano D’Amico and Dr Matthew Agius from the Department of Geosciences, and Dr Ritienne Gauci from the Department of Geography.

The aim of this component is to develop a holistic framework for the understanding and assessment of heritage assets that are exposed to risk from coastal-climate-related hazards and their intrinsic structural behaviour and vulnerability in these scenarios. Coastal heritage is taken as a case study example of the application of the policy framework and management methods developed in the first two components. These two components are being led by teams from Aktis Hydraulics and IHCatabria respectively.

For further information about the project, contact the Project Research team at the Faculty for the Built Environment.