Whilst most people are on their vacation, the team at Research Innovation Unit kept operations uninterrupted all throughout July and August, namely with the continuation of the tree inventory and contemporary analysing the extreme heatwave that hit globally.
Heatwave Analysis
June and July were characterised by extreme heatwaves. As of mid-June, hot temperatures were concentrated in an area covering much of Western Europe. Towards the end of June and into early July, another heatwave stretched from northern Africa to the northern tip of Scandinavia, thus engulfing Malta in full. Heatwave analysis are of extreme importance for the Research Innovative Unit, primarily as they pose a real threat to well-being, the carbon footprint cost to mitigate such is phenomenal and such analyses allows us to find ways to naturally mitigate the heat in the ultra dense urban zones of Malta.
Tree Inventory
The tree inventory continued both in terms of fieldwork data acquisition in the tenacious heat as well as post processing. During post we cross-check tree specious, use photogrammetry techniques to determine tree height and canopy area, vegetation index as well as cross-reference the trees with official orthographic survey photos. Due to our hot and predominantly void of rain fall, it’s particularly difficult to determine the age of trees from just tree trunk circumference and height. Therefore we cross-reference with orthographic images that could even date back by a century. By the end of August we pride that we have fully inventoried 497 trees within a stretch of two months.
