Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1499757
11 NEWS maltatoday | SUNDAY •21 MAY 2023 Environment Protection Act, 2016 Environmental Impact Assessment Regulations (S.L. 549.46) NOTICE OF SUBMISSION OF THE ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT ASSESSMENT REPORT C ONSTRUCTION OF THE SECOND CABLE LINK INTER-CONNECTOR PROJECT. THE PROPOSAL INCLUDES TRENCHING, LAYING, CABLE JOINTING AND INSTALLATION BETWEEN THE ENEMALTA132KV MAGĦTAB TERMINAL STATION AND THE NEAR SHORE APPROACH, CONSTRUCTION OF UNDERGROUND JOINT BAYS, A TRENCH-LESS TRANSITION FROM ONSHORE TO OFFSHORE AND THE LAYING AND PROTECTION OF THE SUBMARINE CABLE UP TO THE MEDIAN LINE BETWEEN MAGĦTAB, NAXXAR MALTA AND RAGUSA, SICILY. Site at Magħtab Terminal Station, Naxxar up to the median line between Malta and Italy, Il-Magħtab, Naxxar PA 04448/22 (EA 00018/21) Notice is hereby being given that the EIA Report has been submitted to the Environment and Resources Authority (ERA) in connection with the above-mentioned application. Digital copies of the EIA Report are available on the ERA website: https://era.org.mt/era-project/ea_00018_21/ Digital copies of the same document are also available at the Naxxar Local Council and the ERA offices in Marsa for public inspection. Anyone who wishes to make any submissions on environmental matters should write to the Director of Environment and Resources, Environment and Resources Authority, Hexagon House, Spencer Hill, Marsa MRS 1441, or send an email to eia.malta@era.org.mt, by the 20 th June 2023. Date: 21 st May 2023. Disclaimer: The Authority is committed to protect the personal data and privacy of the public in general. You are being informed that when making submissions, your personal data will not be disclosed or published unless within twelve (12) hours you give consent to the Authority to disclose your personal data. Provided that the Authority may disclose your personal data in those cases where it is required to do so, in order to comply with the applicable Laws. Mdina's natural history museum still top draw for young visitors Robots to verify farmers' crop photos to claim EU support JAMES DEBONO MALTA'S national museum of natural history in Mdina has emerged as the most popular heritage attraction for family outings with younger kids. Data on the number of visits to historical sites by primary and secondary school stu- dents, who are entitled to a heritage access card for free entrance together with two accompanying adults, shows the dated museuem remains on top despite its austere de- cor and the absence of inter- active features. Housed in the 18th century palace built for Grand Mas- ter Manoel de Vilhena, which later was turned into a chol- era hospital and sanitorium under British rule, the Muse- um of Natural History today houses 850 pieces of rocks and minerals, a flying squid washed ashore in the 1980s, a 4,000-year-old mummified Nile crocodile, the skull of a False Killer Whale and the tooth of a Megalodon shark. In 2022, a total of 27,938 students and accompanying adults were granted free ac- cess to all heritage sites in Malta and Gozo, except for the Ħal Saflieni Hypogeum. The most popular heritage site among beneficiaries of this card were the Museum of Natural History (2,360 vis- its), followed by the Għar Da- lam cave and museum (2,216 visits) whose exhibits include the skeleton of a dwarf ele- phant. Also popular among this cohort are the Ġgantija Tem- ples (2,061), the Old Prison in Gozo (1,668), Ħaġar Qim (1,612 visits) and Mnajdra (1,521 visits). A further 10,850 students visited heritage sites during school visits. The most vis- ited site during school visits was Ħaġar Qim (1,708 visits) followed by the Museum of Natural History (1,290 vis- its), Mnajdra (864 visits) and Għar Dalam (829). 7,256 people also visited heritage sites with the senior citizens card, which grants free access to heritage sites to anyone over 60 and two accompanying youths. The contemporary arts mu- seum Muża in Valletta was the most visited by senior citizens and accompanying youths (672) followed by Ġgantija (533) and the Natu- ral History Museum (480). Among the paying public – which includes tourists – the most popular sites were Ġgantija in Gozo (117,571 visits) followed by the Għar Dalam cave and museum (101,162 visits) and the Mu- seum of Natural History (99,250 visits). jdebono@mediatoday.com.mt MATTHEW VELLA MALTA will deploy Artificial Intelligence to identify crops and trees from geo-tagged photos, uploaded by farmers through BiedjaCam, a government app. BiedjaCam is a mobile phone app that allows farmers to view their land parcels, and where necessary take geotagged pho- tos to be uploaded in the gov- ernmental Land Parcel Iden- tification System (LPIS), to be able to claim EU agricultural support. The app allows farmers to ensure coordination between maps and the photos of their agricultural parcels, to ensure conformity with rules for Com- mon Agricultural Policy (CAP) funds. Under its plans for an AI model of the project, Malta's paying agency ARPA will au- tomate the verification of some 15,000 geotagged photos of agricultural products and land class, uploaded by farmers on BiedjaCam. The process right now is manually verified, and such a substantial number of photos requires automatic screening. The AI model will have to out- put the crop type found in the photo, the coverage it covers in the land, and then be retrained based on the new crops which might qualify for EU support measures in later years. Famers are currently able to browse information about their agricultural holding, check for payments related to EU sup- port, set up a crop plan and submit geo-tagged photos re- lated to the crops being plant- ed. The photos provide evidence of cultivation in case of damag- es incurred by a storm, as well as evidence of crops to satisfy eligibility conditions for cer- tain CAP aid-schemes. CAP requires these kinds of area monitoring systems to be deployed by EU member states for aid applications, to observe, track, and assess agricultural activities and practices, start- ing from the 2023 reporting year. Like the rest of the EU, Malta must ensure that its agricultur- al land can be monitored ei- ther with Copernicus Sentinels satellites, or at least with geo- tagged photos like BiedjaCam, as part of the integrated admin- istration and control system (IACS). In this case, BiedjaCam is used to resolve CAP payment claim queries, enabling farmers to send digital photos of their land parcels directly to Malta's paying agency, ARPA, reducing the need for inspections, and accelerate claim processing. mvella@mediatoday.com.mt The national museum of natural history in Mdina (Photo: Heritage Malta)