MMO ‘Quantification of underwater noise is a current and evolving topic in marine environmental science that is relevant to marine plan policy development. It is recognised that there is currently insufficient data to support a quantitative assessment of underwater noise levels and its impact on the natural environment at marine plan or national scale. This research and development work represents an initial step in addressing the recognised gap in availability of consistent plan scale indicative map(s) of anthropogenic underwater noise distribution and levels to support marine planning.’

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ABP ‘Elena San Martin, Project Manager at ABPmer said: “We are delighted to have undertaken this study for the MMO.  We consider it a first step in addressing the recognised gap in the availability of consistent, plan-scale indicative map(s) of man-made underwater noise distribution. The reports associated with a recent MMO study that explored the quantification and mapping of underwater noise have been published. The research, undertaken by ABPmer, developed an innovative geographic information system (GIS) tool to generate data that could be used to map the distribution of man-made continuous underwater noise in the south marine plan areas. Based on a simple sound transmission model, the tool takes appropriate plan-scale data (such as AIS), applies noise source levels and then propagates the noise into the surrounding environment to create sound maps. Future work will focus on improving output data confidence such as breaking down the activity categories.  Some are all encompassing and therefore the related sound pressure level values are very wide suggesting greater noise transmission than reality. However, though the outputs are indicative they allow some interim consideration of underwater noise in marine planning, until a better understanding of the relationship between activities, noise and the environment is available.’