Basic Introduction about the choice of my dissertation topic

One subject I had in the first semester that had to make me think to choose a particular topic for me to research on in-depth, and think about the techniques that I might be using to input in my own study was called 'Critical Studies and Research Methods'.

At the first week the topic was introduced, the lecturer has warned us (the class) to think well and pick a subject or topic to start thinking and research about it. This announcement of course was a bit cold at the start, since after the summer holidays my mind was still trying to settle in the school schedule. So, after three or four weeks that have passed I decided to base my research on 'Stone Reliefs and Features'. I thought on picking this topic, because I thought the historical stone reliefs of the Maltese buildings would be quite interesting to read and research about, I thought that I would manage to find enough information about it and that as a final representation for next year I would manage to interpret or rather get influenced to create an interesting feature wall design that would be linked in terms with the 21st Century style.

At a later stage I have told my lecturer about my dissertation topic, as she suggested me to talk with another lecturer which next year would possibly be the lecturer that will guide me to get to my intended result for my final design project. Then, I did as the lecturer has suggested and managed to discuss about the current topic with this other lecturer.

As I have told to the other lecturer about the subject that I was thinking about to keep researching on, the lecturer has suggested to rethink about a subject that I adore more while looking up the information and to create a more valid hypothesis that would lead me better especially when I get to analyse from my data collection.

At last I have done the exercise of thinking and pointing out all of my hobbies and topics that interest me the most and managed to gather the subject where I could research, collect data from target participants and make use of other research methods. The topic I decided to stick up to until now for my dissertation is 'Redesigning self-efficient Existent Accommodation'.

Looking forward for more upcoming studies that I would be needing to collect and build up more explorations and analyse more on the last entries that I have already found.

Flood Relief project

The national flood relief project was tackled between 2007 and 2013. They have spotted three places in Malta with the flooding problem and twelve different localities were included in this project to recover or reduce the problem. These are, Attard, Lija, Balzan, B'kara, Iklin, Msida, Marsa, Qormi, Zebbug, Gzira, Zabbar and Marsascala. (gov.mt, 2012)

The project is co-financed by cohesion fund of the EU with 85% and the remaining 15% by the Malta Government and the total allocated funds are of 42.9 million, excluding VAT. (gov.mt, 2012)

One controversy of the Infrastructure Minister Joe Mizzi said that although the project should reduce the impact of floods, the new system still would not solve the flooding problem all over the country. (TimesofMalta, 2015)

The project cost that will be taken by the European Union is of a €55 million, this should help ease the flooding in Birkirkara, Lija, Msida, Balzan, Attard, Iklin, Gzira, Marsascala, Zabbar, Zebbug, Qormi and Marsa. (TimesofMalta, 2015)

The minister said that the other areas that are not included in the project might mitigate a problem, since close to 17,000 people would vote positive and more than 213,000 vote indirectly. (TimesofMalta, 2015)

Only 4,500 properties would be benefiting from the damages of the flooding.

In September 2012, the Government has proposed an extensive project to cover these problems. The National Flood Relief Project was aiming to create channeling water more efficiently and reduce the flooding while in advance the water storage will increase. (In the reservoir this takes only around 10,000 cubic metres of water.)

The whole project to be done takes 16km in length and passes beneath both rural and urban zones. The whole project constitutes of 4 main sub-projects.

The Largest sub-project is of 11km tunnel, that start off from Naxxar and Attard, which then they merge in the outskirts Birkirkara before passing below Birkirkara Valley and Msida, finally it reaches to Ta' Xbiex Retention and the rain water will be drained through 82 across the road-gratings and will be  discharged back into the sea, while the rest will be pumped into the Gzira Reservoir for recycling. This reservoir which has a volume of 10,000 cubic metres, will also collect water that drains from Wied Ghollieq area. The result of all collected water is of 650,000 cubic metres, that potentially, annually it will be exploited as necessary. (Anon, n.d)

Another tunnel system that has been excavated from Zabbar to Marsascala, is systematized similar to the project at Ta Xbiex, once the rainwater will go through all the tunnel and arrives at the Marsascala Retention and discharge structure, the water will be pumped to a retention basin at Wied il-Ghajn for aquifer recharge and will be used for agriculture use. (Anon, n.d)

The last sub- project is different from the other three projects done. This project subdivides in two, one part that starts from Qormi to Marsa and the other that starts from Wied Baqqiegha and Wied il-Hesri(Zebbug), this project consists to generate the flooding and allows a better flowing of water. This water will then drain from the town and discharge directly into Wied Qirda. (Anon, n.d)

The projects that calm the flood flow better and will be restored in the reservoirs will then can be recycled and used as a second class water that will access in the flushing water of the hotels that have applied for the second class water, such like the Paradise Bay Hotel. (Staff Reporter, 2013)



References:

gov.mt, 2012. 'Rainwater flood relief project'. Available at: <https://mti.gov.mt/en/Pages/WASD/PROJECTS/Rainwater-Flood-Relief-Project.aspx> [Accessed on 17th January 2017]

AI Engineering, 2007-2013. 'The National Flood Relief Project -Malta'. Available at: <http://www.aigmalta.eu/> [Accessed on 17th January 2017]

TimesofMalta.com, 2015. 'work on national flood relief project concluded'. Available at: <http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20151231/local/work-on-national-flood-relief-project-concluded.597334> [Accessed on 17th January 2017]

Staff Reporter, 2013. 'Second-Class water plans wins Business Bureau approval' Available at: <http://www.maltatoday.com.mt/business/business_news/26037/second-class-water-plans-wins-business-bureau-approval-20130412#.WH-SefkrKUk> [Accessed on 17th January 2017]

Anon, n.d. 'Of Tunnels and Reservoirs: The National Flood Relief Project' Available at: <http://www.yremalta.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/Of-Tunnels-and-Reservoirs.pdf> [Accessed on 17th January 2017]

Buckingham Palace

The undergo of the Buckingham palace is about the amount of money that will be spent on the refurbishment and the money issue to the tax payers.

To introduce a short history of the Buckingham palace, the building was constructed and completed in 1850's and remolded in 1913. The building was firstly used by Queen Victoria and has not been redecorated since 1952.

The refurbishment that needs to be done is long overdue and from the maintenance survey they could tell that there has not been any updates since the 1950's, the building is found to be at a point in risk from electronics, plumbing and heating system. The total amount cost of the refurbishment resulted to be of £369 million, which is quite of a high amount to pay.

From my findings, it was said that the queen only spends 1/3 of her working year at the Buckingham palace.

In the Buckingham palace there are 775 rooms including, 19 state rooms, 52 royal and guest rooms, 92 offices, 78 bathrooms, 188 staff bedrooms and the garden that is the largest private garden in London.

The refurbishment that needs to be done are, a 33 year old boilers, 60 years old of a 100 miles electrical cable and a 20 miles of lead and cast iron pipework. The queen will still remain in residence during the refurbishment that will start in April 2017 and finishes in 2027.

The controversy and debate about this highlight is that Tory Government wants to reduce the parliament minister from 59 to 53, all this is to save more money for the Buckingham Palace. While Hannah Bardell said that although Tory Government is debating ''whether to cut the number of elected representatives in a cost saving measure'' rather, the steps should be taken to maintain and restore such buildings for people who finds it really hard to grasp the millions and restore their residential places. But the belief in Tory is to leave the poorest in the society, suffering.

In my opinion behind this situation, what I find unfair is to the lower class, that have an average payment and from 15% they have to pay 25% of the tax, until the ending of the Buckingham palace refurbished, that will last until 2027.

From my perspective the people that are taking care of the cost that needs to be payed, is not fair for the lower class families that are working so hard and doing their best to pay all the expenses and errands with just minimum amount of money. Adding more to this that I don't agree with is, from what Helen Goodman from the Parliament minister member that takes in charge of the Treasury Committee said that ''the government has stopped providing grants for the building of social housing to rent and yet the grant will be straightforward to the Buckingham palace''. (C.Davies, 2016)




Reference:

Caroline Davies, 2016. 'Buckingham Palace to undergo 'essential' £370m refurbishment'. [online] Available at: <https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2016/nov/18/buckingham-palace-to-undergo-370m-refurbishment> [Accessed on 10th January 2017]

UK, 2016. 'Buckingham Palace to get £369 million refurbishment'. [online] Available at: <http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-38025513> [Accessed on 10th January 2017]

Malta-Gozo Tunnel/Bridge

The proposal of the bridge project has begun since 1972, as the Labour party administration has elected on having a feasible connection to cross from Gozo to Malta and vise versa. It was said that the project could possibly be constructed in four years with €1 billion and it would cost €4 million each year for the bridge to be kept maintained and be kept in good operation. A tunnel has also been considered but at that time the cost was found to be to high for the project to be done.

In 2006 an online poll of the Times of Malta have declared that 55 percent of the respondents have supported this proposal.

In June 2013 a Chinese company that could construct the tunnel bridge project from Malta to Gozo, said that the study to assess the feasibility would cost around €4 million. At a later stage Anton Refalo said that a referendum should be determined to see what the Gozitans would prefer, either a tunnel or a bridge.


Reading other articles about the decision of construction a bridge/tunnel or not, progresses to a Geologist named Peter Gatt says that there should be a National Geological Service before heading to construct a connection project from Malta to Gozo. Moreover an Environmentalist Alan Deidun concluded that as a disadvantage risk that may happen is that Gozo might be created with traffic congestion.

Although Gozo tries to preserve its natural environment, the 'Eco Gozo island' still took in consideration to construct the bridge/tunnel, yet the analysis study and ecstatically value resulted that this could cause damage to the environment.

In consideration to the advantages that can improve the system, if the bride/tunnel will be constructed are, students/employees/ family visitors and more can cross quicker and faster in much less time, if the Malta Public Transport will decrease its service it will also help the environmental system for people to make more use of the public transport to travel from Malta and Gozo, the bulk of the containers can be also faster and more reliable for the merchandise to be imported and exported, more businesses can be more of success in Gozo and avoiding the weather conditions problem from having a slower service or ferry cancellation.

On the other hand there are other issues that keep the project pending from being done, such like high costs, Gozo may lose its uniqueness, may cause more traffic conjunction in Gozo, the construction takes a number of years to get done, with the amount of money that they will spend to construct the tunnel/bridge they could buy another ship and make the service more frequent.


In my consideration I would suggest for the ferry to improve and update with the maritime engines, in order to be faster, stronger, safer for the travelers to cross from one island to the other and so that way they could save more money and time in order to spend that large amount for the construction to be done or spend the money by buying another ship.



References:

MaltaToday.com.mt, 2016. "Gozo Tunnel Movement Wants Project Up And Running By 2028". Web. 6 Jan. 2017

Times of Malta, 2016. Ltd, Allied. "Tunnel Linking Malta To Gozo Most Viable Option – Muscat; 'Queue' Of Consortia Interested In Project". Web. 6 Jan. 2017

Independent.com.mt, 2016. "Government Intends Moving Forward With Malta-Gozo Link, But All Options Open - PM - The Malta Independent".  Web. 6 Jan. 2017

Independent.com.mt, 2016. 'Malta-Gozo Tunnel A Plausible Solution To Transport Network Challenges' - Front Favur Il-Mina - The Malta Independent". Web. 6 Jan. 2017

Times of Malta, 2016. Ltd, Allied. "Malta-Gozo Tunnel Study ‘Superficial’ - Expert". Web. 6 Jan. 2017

MaltaToday.com.mt, 2016. "Gozo Tunnel By 2030 Is In ‘Race Against Time’". Web. 6 Jan. 2017

Times of Malta, 2015. Ltd, Allied. "Gozo: Bridge Plan Shelved, Focus Will Be On Tunnel". Web. 6 Jan. 2017

Times of Malta, 2015. Ltd, Allied. "Tunnel Vision For Gozo? Lively Exchanges On Timestalk". Web. 6 Jan. 2017.