Overview of the presentation
•Noise pollution
•Aim of the project
•Partners
•Study sites
•Methods
•Output
Overview - Partners - Sites - Methods - Output

What noise pollution is?
it is the unwanted sound that disrupts the activity or balance of human or animal life
Effects of excessively intense noise levels:
On animals: masking of sounds used for reproduction and navigation, reduction of usable habitat (cause of extinction to some species), long term changes in population structure
On humans: hypertension, annoyance and aggression, tinnitus, sleep disturbances
On both: stress, permanent or temporary hearing loss, other harmful effects
Overview - Partners - Sites - Methods - Output

Many human activities can be claimed as responsible for noise pollution www.fuelingtheworld.com
Unwanted noise can be impulsive or tonal, loud or relatively quiet, persistent or short/very short

Why addressing undewater noise pollution?
Because of increasing human activities in coastal areas, it is a every-day growing problem
Most sensitive areas in Northern Adriatic, located in highly populated coastal zones, with very high level of human activities, are critical habitats for key-species, both marine and terrestrial
Transboundary problem – need of joint collaboration between neighbouring countries
Overview - Partners - Sites - Methods - Output

Aim of the presented project
Underwater noise is one of the relevant issues in the new Marine Strategy Framework Directive , adopted by the EU in 2008.
MSFD requires a complete assessment of marine environment in all EU seas within 2012 as well as development of monitoring programmes for all relevant parameters, including underwater noise.
This project is intended to prepare Guidance on the Effective airborne and Underwater Noise
Management in Slovenian-Italian coastal areas
Overview - Partners - Sites - Methods - Output

Our principal activity is to perform scientific research, test, implement and ensure safety and health in the working and living environment as well as protection from ionized and non-ionized radiation, fire safety, road safety, publicity and education.
ZVD d.d.
takes an active part since 1960 and it is the oldest and the largest institution on the field of assuring of safety and health at work.
ZVD d.d.
is equipped with top-level equipment and employ 95 people including 5
Doctors of Science, 6 with Master's degrees and 51 university, college and high school graduates.
ZVD d.d.
covers entire region of the Republic of Slovenia and performs whole range of services from the field of safety and health at work and living environment.
Overview Partners - Sites - Methods - Output 7

NOISE MEASUREMENTS
Laboratory for Physical Measurement received accreditation according to standard SIST EN ISO/IEC 17025 for performing sound Insulation measurements in buildings and of building materials and for measuring noise in buildings and in the natural and living environment
SOME LAST BIGGEST ACOUSTICAL PROJECTS:
PORT OF KOPER –
CONTINUES NOISE MEASUREMENTS AROUND PORT AND NOISE MAPPING
AIRPORT OF LJUBLJANA –
CONTINUES NOISE MEASUREMENTS OF AIRCRAFT NOISE
MILITARY AIRPORT CERKLJE PRI KRKI –
NOISE MAPPING, NOISE MEASSUREMENTS
COMBINED HEAT AND POWER STATION TE-TOL LJUBLJANA - NOISE CONTROL
ZVD Zavod za varstvo pri delu, d.d.; Chengdujska cesta 25, 1260 Ljubljana - Polje
Overview Partners - Sites - Methods - Output 8

Institute for Water of the Republic of Slovenia
 Founded in the early sixties as Water Management
Institute
 From 2004 it is a public institute
 specialized in water resources management and freshwater and maritime engineering.
 IWRS serves the Ministry of Environment in legal regulation procedures in water management planning and water protection.
Overview Partners - Sites - Methods - Output

Institute for Water of the Republic of Slovenia
Staff
56 employed
Field of activities:
12 researchers
(8 PhD)
35 engineers
11 technicians & admin.
Lead institution for organization of expert support to the Ministry of Environment in implementation of:
 Marine Strategy Framework Directive
 Water Framework Directive
 Flood Directive and other fields
Development and research in the fields of:
 water ecology, hydrology and river morphodynamics;
 hydrological studies, water management plans and environmental risk assessment studies;
 GIS, data management.
Overview Partners - Sites - Methods - Output

The newly founded Department of Life Sciences of Trieste University originates from the fusion of four departments: the Department of
Biochemistry, Biophysics and Macromolecular Chemistry, the Department of Biology, the Department of Physiology and
Pathology and the Department of Biomedical Sciences.
More than 10 years of formal agreement between Biology
Department (University of Trieste) and WWF-Natural Marine Reserve of Miramare
Several studies on the impact of man-made input of noise and light in the marine environment, with special regards to the behavioral response of target species to these stimuli
Overview Partners - Sites - Methods - Output

Acoustic protection of the marine bio-system
 5 Master Thesis, 2 PhD, 1 research fellowship
 Research papers on the topic published on international scientific journals Blue World Institute for marine research and conservation
 Biology Department, University of Wien
 Blue-World Institute of Marine Research and Conservation
 FRS Marine Laboratory of Aberdeen (UK)
 SISSA (Trieste)
 Engeneering Department, University of Parma (Italy)
Overview Partners - Sites - Methods - Output

Cooperative Society
Estabilished in 1988
Research institute from 1995
Quality certified ENI EN ISO 900 1 –20 00; TŰV Italy
25701/2003
Highly qualified Laboratory for Ministry of Education,
University and Research
Authorized for research activity in fisheries and aquaculture from Ministry for Agricultural, Food and Forest
Resources
Overview Partners - Sites - Methods - Output

Staff: 30 people, comprising mainly biologists, but also geologists, businnes consultants, lawers…
Fields of activity:
 Environmental conservation
 Management of Miramare Marine Reserve
 Environmental education
 Scientific Monitoring of marine ecosystems
Overview Partners - Sites - Methods - Output

Marine Biology Station
 The Marine Biology Station Piran MBS was founded in 1969 as a Unit of the Institute of Biology, University of Ljubljana
 Today is a Unit of the National Institute of Biology
Ljubljana;
 The MBS is currently the only research group in
Slovenia devoted entirely to marine scientific research and professional work.
Overview Partners - Sites - Methods - Output

Staff MBS
35 employed:
 16 researchers
(13 PhD)
 10 young researchers
 9 technicians & administrators
Biologists, chemists, biochemists, pysics, metereologists, geologists , …
Overview Partners - Sites - Methods - Output

Industrial Engineering Department
 The University of Parma was founded in XI century: it is among the 4 most ancient in the world
 The Industrial Engineering Department was established in 1990, focusing on mechanical engineering and environmental impact of industry
 Current staff includes 38 academics, 64 postgraduate fellows, 11 technicians/administratives
 Yearly research funds range between 350.000 € and
750.000 €, without accounting staff’s wages
Overview Partners - Sites - Methods - Output

Underwater Acoustics at UNIPR-IED

Multichannel hydrophone arrays for low-frequency active
SONAR and passive source localization
 Use of innovative not-impulsive test signals for echosounding with low environmental impact
 Patented three-dimensional underwater Ambisonics probe allows for vector analysis of pressure and particle velocity
 Software for mapping noise propagation in coastal areas
Overview Partners - Sites - Methods - Output

Morigenos – marine mammal research and conservation society
 founded in 2001
 independent, non-profit and non-governmental organization, dedicated to the research and protection of cetaceans and conservation of the marine environment.
 Involved in several projects in the field of scientific research, education, public awareness and conservation
 partner organization to ACCOBAMS (An Agreement on the
Conservation of Cetaceans of the Black Sea, Mediterranean
Sea and contiguous Atlantic Area
 14 people, mainly biologists, but also veterinaries, students, volunteers with different backgrounds
Overview Partners - Sites - Methods - Output

Slovenian Dolphin Project by Morigenos
Started in 2002
Long-term project
Ecology and conservation of bottlenose dolphins
Mediterranean population: proposed as “Vulnerable” by IUCN.
Only regular cetacean in the Gulf of Trieste and north Adriatic
Distribution, abundance, social structure, population dynamics, habitat use, behaviour, fishery interactions, strandings
Overview Partners - Sites - Methods - Output

Sečovlje Salina Nature
Park
 Protected area
 Ramsar Site
 Natura 2000 Site
 Conservation of wild b irds – EC Bird s
Directive
 Conservation of natural habitats and of wild fauna and flora – EC Habitats Directive
 51experts
Overview Partners - Sites - Methods - Output

Sečovlje Salina Nature
Park
Field of activity:
 production of salt with traditional methods
 from 2003 management of Natural Park and water management
 Environmental monitoring and protection
Overview Partners - Sites - Methods - Output

Study sites
Overview - Partners Sites - Methods - Output

EMISSION SOURCES
INVENTORY
-
Shipping, boating
- Construction works (coastal)
- Road traffic, urbanization*
- Airport
* Urbanization includes also emissionsfrom recreational sources
CHARACTERSATION OF NOISE EMISSIONS
Underwater noise emissions
- Shipping, boating
- Construction (coastal) airborne noise emissions
- Shipping, boating
- Construction (coastal)
- Road traffic, urbanization
- Airport
STATE OF ENVIRONMENT MONITORING
Underwater - background noise airborne - background noise
Underwater noise levels monitoring airborne noise levels monitoring
Marine fauna
IMPACTS
Intertidal fauna, marine birds, turtles
Terrestrial fauna, human health
RESULTS
UNDERWATER NOISE MANAGEMENT airborne NOISE MANAGEMENT
Limit values
Sensitive areas Hot spot areas
Safety distances Safety distances
Limit values
Sensitive areas Hot spot areas
Safety distances Safety distances

AIRBORNE NOISE MONITORING AND MAPPING
Noise monitoring:
- 4 noise monitoring terminal
- short time measurements on all locations
Airborne Noise mapping:
- costal traffic
- water traffic and activities
- other noise events
Overview - Partners - Sites Methods - Output 25

AIRBORNE NOISE MONITORING
Overview - Partners - Sites Methods - Output 26

Long term monitoring of Underwater noise
5 sonobuoys in study areas
1 sonobuoy offshore location connecteded to VIDA
Vida:oceanographic buoy
Reception station at MBS
Soundfish : innovative buoy to record noise directionality and particle velocity
Overview - Partners - Sites Methods - Output

Study of coastal fish assemblage
N ondestructive visual census methods
•Vertical transects
•Horizontal transects
•All-occurence sampling
Habitat types
Species richness
Abundance
Cryptobenthic and
Endolitic species
Overview - Partners - Sites Methods - Output

Acoustic census and playback in the field
!!!!!!
Overview - Partners - Sites Methods - Output

Laboratory work
1=video camera; 2=videorecorder; 3= recorder; 4= hydrophone;
5= loudspeaker; 6= Portable recorder
Overview - Partners - Sites Methods - Output

Boat based and land based surveys
C-pod
Photo-ID
Behavioural sampling
Overview - Partners - Sites Methods - Output

Monitoring target species
Plotting data on maps
All Species
5039
5038
5037
5036
389 390 391 392
EX: distribution of breeding species
Measuring biological diversity
We will be able to answer to question such as:
 how well are we doing?
 Is human noise harming target species ?
 what difference are we making?
Overview - Partners - Sites Methods - Output

NOISE IMPACTS ON TERRESTRIAL ANIMALS AND HUMANS
CRITERIA FOR NOISE IMPACT ON HUMANS (Existing legislation - EU)
• Annoyance,
• sleeping disturbance,
• Interference with communications, schools, communities,
• hearing damage.
ASSESSMENT OF NOISE ON ANIMALS (No legislation exists - EU)
• For domesticated species the issue is still damage to individual animals or impacts on production and profits.
• For wild animals high noise levels can interfere with chance of their survival and stability of species population.
• The abandonment of nests and resulting death of young birds are possible.
Overview - Partners - Sites Methods - Output

Outputs:
 Noise maps of the Northern Adriatic coastline
 Handbooks with guidelines, informative material
 Set animal-safe limit values for man made noise
 Develop mitigation measures
 Create a website accessible to the large public
Overview - Partners - Sites - Methods Output

In the framework of Prioritary AXIS 1 of the Italy-
Slovenia collaboration, this project will:
 Protect the peculiar biodiversity of Northern
Adriatic
 Protect environment from noise pollution and technological risk
 Estabilish a long term collaboration for the management of the coastal area
 Develop strategies for conservation and management of natural areas (protected or not) and
Natura 2000 sites in the area, which is one of the most preserved in Europe
Overview - Partners - Sites - Methods Output

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