The Malta Environment and Planning Authority has recently obtained a new mobile station for the measurement of air quality. This mobile station forms part of a €4.6 million project aimed at enhancing Malta’s capacity in environmental monitoring.

This project is co-financed by the European Regional Development Fund, which provides 85% of the project’s funding and the Government of Malta, which finances the rest under Operational Programme 1 – Cohesion Policy 2007-2013 – Investing in Competitiveness for a Better Quality of Life.

The main purpose of this mobile station is to minimise any data gaps resulting from the shutdown of the five fixed stations which are used to generate and report data to the EU. This will make it more possible for Malta to achieve the data quality objectives required by the Ambient Air Quality Directive

Currently, MEPA operates five fixed air monitoring stations at Attard, Kordin Msida, Zejtun, and Gharb Gozo. Furthermore, the Authority monitors air quality through diffusion tube network which was introduced in 2004 to have a better spatial coverage over the Maltese Islands. This network includes 44 localities amounting to 131 monitoring sites in Malta and Gozo. All air monitoring results are publicly available on MEPA’s website.

MEPA intends to use this station to carry out short term monitoring campaigns (3 months duration) in order to verify the delineation of the Maltese air quality agglomeration. Furthermore, the station will also enable MEPA to verify the data being generated from its passive diffusive tube network.

Besides enabling Malta to achieve compliance with most EU environmental monitoring requirements, the availability of more reliable and scientifically meaningful data will provide improved tools and knowledge for effective environmental protection action and environmental policies.

MEPA is continuously working to improve our air quality through various initiatives. Amongst other, the Authority works with Enemalta to ensure that the Delimara power station complies with stringent EU emission standards, with Transport Malta to implement measures to reduce air pollution from transport, as well as with a multitude of industry operators to control industrial emissions through environmental permitting regime.

Earlier this year, through the ERDF-funded project, MEPA has carried out 3-D aerial surveys using the innovative Lidar technology. Following these surveys, MEPA will now be able to generate digital terrain 3-D models, which can be used for various applications such as urban and transport planning, environmental impact assessments, modeling of runoff water, and monitoring of land use. All data from this project will be viewable from a web portal, currently being designed, known as a Shared Environmental Information System (SEIS), which will be launched towards the end of the project in June 2013.

This ERDF-funded project involves monitoring of five environmental themes – air, water, soil, radiation and noise in conjunction with the implementation of 3D terrestrial and bathymetric surveys. This project is resulting in the procurement of equipment, information management systems, environmental baseline surveys, training of staff, and the enhancement of the national monitoring programmes in these five environmental themes.

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