Influencing national cultural preparedness for environmental extremes in Malta

Managing risk Raising awareness & improving understanding Security, emergency planning and response

Research by Liverpool Hope University has increased awareness and understanding of environmental hazards in Malta by changing and creating a cultural preparedness for hazard events at a national level.

Issue

Though perceived to be a non-disaster-prone destination, Malta is hazard exposed because of the impacts of volcanic eruptions (volcanic ash from neighbouring Mount Etna), earthquakes, tsunamis, droughts, flash floods, and slope failure. Due to the small size of Malta, much of the critical and tourism infrastructure is located in coastal areas, increasing the vulnerability of the islands should a disaster occur.

Approach

Four main themes underpin this research: vulnerability and culture, hazard exposure in coastal locations, the tourism industry in Malta, and stakeholder networks and engagement.

Impact

Two conference workshops (February 2018 and February 2019) were held in Floriana, Malta, entitled “Hazard awareness and vulnerability of tourism destinations in the Maltese Islands”. Overall, 20 stakeholders ranging from scientific academics, private sector, government organisations/ministries and non-governmental organisations contributed.

The research from the workshops led to the creation of a national Tsunami Advisory Board in 2019. It also resulting in improved communications amongst different levels of government with regards to disaster risk reduction (DRR) frameworks, the incorporation of hazard awareness training into educational establishments and the tourism industry, and greater stakeholder collaboration between different sectors.

More information

Read the full impact case study in the REF 21 database

Institution: Liverpool Hope University

Researchers: Dr Victoria Kennedy, Dr Kevin Crawford, Associate Professor Janet Speake, Professor David Chester

Share this resource

This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY NC 4.0), which permits use, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, provided the original work is cited and it is for non-commercial purposes. Please contact us for other uses.

How to cite

Royal Geographical Society (with IBG) (2023) Influencing national cultural preparedness for environmental extremes in Malta. Available at https://rgs.org/environmentalextremesMalta Last accessed on: <date>