Averaging underwater noise levels for environmental assessment of shipping

Rising underwater noise levels from shipping have raised concerns regarding chronic impacts to marine fauna. However, there is a lack of consensus over how to average local shipping noise levels for environmental impact assessment. This paper addresses this issue using 110 days of continuous data re...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America 2012-10, Vol.132 (4), p.EL343-EL349
Main Authors: MERCHANT, Nathan D, BLONDEL, Philippe, DAKIN, D. Tom, DOROCICZ, John
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Acoustics
Acoustics - instrumentation
Environmental Monitoring - instrumentation
Environmental Monitoring - methods
Exact sciences and technology
Fundamental areas of phenomenology (including applications)
Linear Models
Motion
Noise, Transportation - adverse effects
Noise: its effects and control
Oceans and Seas
Physics
Pressure
Ships
Signal Processing, Computer-Assisted
Sound
Sound Spectrography
Time Factors
Transducers, Pressure
Water
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Summary:Rising underwater noise levels from shipping have raised concerns regarding chronic impacts to marine fauna. However, there is a lack of consensus over how to average local shipping noise levels for environmental impact assessment. This paper addresses this issue using 110 days of continuous data recorded in the Strait of Georgia, Canada. Probability densities of ~10(7) 1-s samples in selected 1/3 octave bands were approximately stationary across one-month subsamples. Median and mode levels varied with averaging time. Mean sound pressure levels averaged in linear space, though susceptible to strong bias from outliers, are most relevant to cumulative impact assessment metrics.
ISSN:0001-4966
1520-8524
DOI:10.1121/1.4754429