2023_programme: Energy-based soundscape mapping for assessing shipping noise in EU waters

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  • Session: 20. Underwater noise in the EU Marine Strategy Framework Directive: monitoring and impacts on marine ecosystems
    Organiser(s): Jakob Tougaard, Aristides Prospathopoulos and Emmanuel Skarsoulis
  • Lecture: Energy-based soundscape mapping for assessing shipping noise in EU waters [invited]
    Paper ID: 2002
    Author(s): MacGillivray Alexander, Sertlek Özkan, Ainslie Michael, Wood Michael
    Presenter: MacGillivray Alexander
    Abstract: Management of anthropogenic noise in EU waters, in the context of Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD) Descriptor 11, requires efficient and flexible marine spatial planning tools. Recent work has demonstrated that acoustic models offer a practical method for mapping environmental sound over large spatial scales. Nonetheless, mapping underwater sound from shipping presents unique computational challenges, due to its ubiquitous presence in EU waters and the transboundary nature of shipping traffic routes. At large spatiotemporal scales, it is more practical to model sound from time-averaged shipping density rather than from individual ships. We describe such an approach, in which ship sound emissions are assumed to have a continuous rather than discrete spatial distribution. This naturally leads to an energy-based method whereby source levels are computed from integrated sound emissions inside discrete source cells and received sound levels are computed from area-and-depth-averaged propagation loss within discrete receiver cells. The resulting sound levels are stored in individual map layers, corresponding to different ship types, time periods, and operational/technical measures. These maps layers can be efficiently combined and manipulated using GIS tools to assess both past and future shipping traffic scenarios. This approach offers a practical method for assessing MSFD environmental status indicators over multiple ocean basins and decadal time scales.\nThis work is funded by the European Maritime Safety Agency, project number EMSA/OP/18/2021.
  • Corresponding author: Mr Alexander MacGillivray
    Affiliation: JASCO Applied Sciences
    Country: Canada
    e-mail:

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