Mepa embarks on aerial photography

The Malta Environment and Planning Authority has just embarked on another exercise of aerial photography.

The planning and environment watchdog periodically undertakes aerial photography in order to update several key products produced by the Mapping Unit, Malta's national mapping agency. The authority has an archive of detailed photography of the country dating back to 1957.

This year, two scales of aerial imagery are being shot.

Photography at 1:10,000 scale will be taken to produce a high-resolution orthophotomap of the Maltese islands. Lower flights will be undertaken to shoot imagery at 1:4,000 scale, which will be used to update the digital topographic map. This will also facilitate enforcement action reconnaissance.

With the help of these photos one can trace the evolution of development. This exercise ties in with the announcement made earlier this year by the Minister for Rural Affairs and the Environment, George Pullicino, that aerial photography will be used to identify illegal development and subsequent action will be taken against such development. This will be another tool which Mepa will be able to use against illegal development.

The photos are of importance to people like students, architects, geographers, planners and those who need an aerial snapshot of a locality. They have also been used to identify archaeological remains. Examples of such photos can be found on Mepa's web server.