Measurement of underwater noise arising from marine aggregate operations
- Reference:
- 09/P108
- Organisation:
- National Physical Laboratory
- Amount Funded:
- £185,856
- Status:
- Current
This project aims to address the lack of accurate data for the
underwater noise produced by UK dredging operations for aggregate
extraction, a knowledge gap identified in the final report for MEPF
Project 08/P21 and in Priority Area A4 of the June MEPF call. The
project will assess the noise from a range of UK the marine
aggregate dredging operations with regard to the potential for
adverse effect on marine life.
The work will include underwater noise measurement of
dredging operations in UK waters around four identified sites, and
studies of source mechanisms and propagation. The state-of-the-art
equipment and measurement protocols used will conform to
international best practice. Measurements will be performed such
that temporal variation in the radiated noise over the entire
dredging activity will be monitored and noise measured as a
function of range. The combination of these will allow the
propagation losses to be estimated, and the source level to be
estimated. Results will be compared to background noise levels
measured during the project in the absence of dredging operations,
and assessment made of the impact of radiated noise on marine life
using international best practice. Finally and a series of
knowledge transfer activities are planned to disseminate the
project outputs.