The historical geography of Rinella within the Grand Harbour and its development plans

Abstract

This dissertation is the result of a personal interest in the locality, the studies in geography at the University, my interest in art and the skills I learned in universities and institutes abroad. I only discovered Rinella a few years ago through my boyfriend, who showed me around giving me a brief account of the place. Rinella has loads of potentialities even though it looked like it was an abandoned site. I was intrigued with Rinella' s historical facet, its rural characteristics and its geographical features and I felt that it deserved more attention and recognition so I decided that it would be both interesting and challenging to base my dissertation on Rinella itself. I have always been inspired artistically and I believe that art plays an important part in our lives as it is a means of expressing and identifying oneself. I gained further knowledge of drawing and painting through my years of experience in Junior College and my 1st year at the University of Malta under the guidance of Dr. Giuseppe Schembri Bonaci, were I also had the opportunity to take part in an oil painting exhibition; Il-Bottega Ta' Giuseppe. This helped me to create my dissertation with an artistic touch, thus I have depicted and drawn particular drawings of the various characteristic which reflect Rinella at the beginning of each chapter. During my 1 st year at the University of Malta I got the chance to work with Chris Attwood (Consultant Transport Planner) on the Smart City Traffic Surveys, during October 2006 for the Transport Assessment for Smart City development in Malta. It is through this experience that I obtained the idea for the traffic flow surveys used in this dissertation. The guidelines used for my Interviews were obtained through my participation in the Focus Group Skills activity, held by Dr. Julia Brown from the University of Portsmouth, at the University of Malta, 2009. I also had the possibility to participate in the Seminar: INSPIRE Yourself 2007 and the Pacem In Maribus XXXII Malta, Youth Parliament at the Parliament of Malta 2007, which helped me to boost my confidence when it comes to discuss and communicate with others on various opinions. I also attended the Cultural Landscapes of the Maltese islands, 2008 conference and participated in its workshop, which was beneficial as it broadened my perspective on the cultural landscape of Malta.