## 3 Identifying Legislative and Operational Requirements  
The initial steps in the preliminary study were aimed at identifying modes of baseline data capture, which were eventually enhanced through the creation of integrated and open data for the eventual porting to online virtual worlds. Identifying these modes of baseline data capture was made possible through an analysis of the Maltese state of affairs of access to data, harmonized datasets and validated data. In this regard, the project identified that the Maltese development of virtual environments aims at employing remote sensing technology. The first base maps were created in the late 1980s, which were followed by a surge of spatial information related to thematic activities in the 1990s, and the eventual implementation of spatial information at the analytical stage during the 2000s. The Maltese EU accession in 2004 resulted in the need for analytical and modeling progress in the fields of planning and, more vitally, environment protection, the latter requiring a large take-up of EU _acquis_ requirements. This spatial-related technology and analytical process has now matured such that what is now considered necessary are efforts focused on the societal benefits as identified by the GEO initiatives [12] listed below:  
1. Reducing loss of life and property from natural and human-induced disasters;
2. Understanding environmental factors affecting human health and well-being;
3. Improving management of energy resources;* Understanding, assessing, predicting, mitigating, and adapting to climate variability and change;
* Improving water resource management through better understanding of the water cycle;
* Improving weather information, forecasting and warning;
* Improving the management and protection of terrestrial, coastal and marine ecosystems;
* Supporting sustainable agriculture and combating desertification; and
* Understanding, monitoring and conserving biodiversity.  
In order to implement the changes above, the state has to have an educated populace that understands data in space and time, which, if not available, should be developed in order to disseminate locational knowledge, and to lay the baseline for scenario-building. Malta's early work sought to mitigate the barriers to access to data, high charging costs, and data currency. Pre-EU accession projects aimed at improving Malta's capacity in relation to the implementation of the Aarhus Convention [13], the Infrastructure for Spatial Information in the European Community (INSPIRE) Directive [14], the Freedom of Information Act [15], the Public Access to Information Act [16], and the Shared Environmental Information System [17]. However, the relative projects, whilst serving as consumables for the professional and academic domains, were of little help to the public at large. Tools were required to help the general public to access the data and primarily to create a set of baseline data that would fuel that same access, however, such access was still developed in 2D format and interaction with the actual data by the public was not possible. The new possibilities to interact with the same data in virtual environments required the setting up of infrastructures that enable the creation of a 3D environment, one which would allow the study of interactionism between the players, their known environment and reaction to unknown or new spaces within the virtual worlds.