Effects of Sound on the Marine Environment

Abstract

The long-term goals are to develop novel techniques to measure and predict, through modeling, the effect of sound on the marine environment. Modeling includes acoustic sources, propagation and the interaction of sound with animal behavior models. Determining the necessary environmental information such as bathymetry, sound speed and seabed properties for accurate modeling is also an essential component of this work. The objective of this research is to develop modeling tools for estimating the impact of sound on marine life. The goal is to provide state-of-the-art, open source codes to model sound sources, sound propagation and animal behavior. We are also assembling open source environmental databases for quantities such as seabed properties, bathymetry and ocean sound speed. Together, these tools will provide the best estimate of the impact of various sonar systems on the marine environment. These tools are bundled with a simple user interface in the One Navy Model (ONM) for Acoustic Effects Software (formerly known as the Effect of Sound on the Marine Environment (ESME) Workbench) which is intended to be a type of gold standard for estimating the impact of anthropogenic sound on marine mammals. Currently, Navy environmental impact statements are prepared at the Naval Undersea Warfare Center (NUWC) and by several government contractors. The software and databases being used are often either classified or proprietary. ONR has put together a team consisting Boston University (David Mountain), Biomimetica (Dorian Houser), HLS Research (Michael Porter) and Portland State University (Martin Siderius) to build the ESME Workbench, which will make the needed calculations for assessing environmental impact without using classified or proprietary components.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Sep 30, 2011
Accession Number
ADA599172

Entities

People

  • Elizabeth T. Kuesel
  • Martin Siderius
  • Scott Schecklman

Organizations

  • Portland State University

Tags

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Acoustic Propagation
  • Acoustics
  • Animal Behavior
  • Animals
  • Bathymetry
  • Computer Programs
  • Databases
  • Deep Oceans
  • Environment
  • Graphical User Interface
  • Mammals
  • Marine Mammals
  • Odontocetes
  • Simulations
  • Sound Pressure
  • Undersea Warfare
  • User Interface

Readers

  • Computational Modeling and Simulation
  • Marine Mammal Biology