2025 DATA CALL on Noise Data in the Mediterranean and Black Sea regions

This data call is launched under the framework of the ACCOBAMS Programme of Work 2023 – 2025 and as part of the cooperation with UNEP/MAP regarding the implementation of IMAP.

 

1.  Subject
Gathering data on Impulsive Noise Events and Continuous Noise in the Mediterranean and Black Sea regions to support the implementation of MSFD-D11 (Criteria 1 and 2) and IMAP Common Indicators 26 and 27.

 

2. Use of the data
Data will contribute to the monitoring and assessment of underwater noise in the Mediterranean and Black Sea regions by the ACCOBAMS Permanent Secretariat and related expert groups. Continuous noise data will be mainly used for the verification and calibration of regional acoustic models implemented in the NETCCOBAMS platform. Impulsive noise event data will be used to feed the Noise Register of the Mediterranean and Black Sea regions, also integrated into the same platform.

 

  3. Background
The following legal background ascribes the Secretariat of ACCOBAMS, with the support of the UNEP/MAP, the competence to address and manage the impact of anthropogenic underwater noise:

♦ Eight Resolutions on underwater noise management and mitigation adopted by ACCOBAMS Parties[1]

♦Resolution 8.2 on the ACCOBAMS Programme of Work 2022-2025, indicating the following as means of implementation of Conservation Actions related to the issue of underwater noise:

– Feeding the Noise Register managed by ACCOBAMS

– Developing the cooperation with UNEP/MAP and EU regarding the IMAP and MSFD processes, respectively.

♦ A Memorandum of Understanding since 2016 between the Secretariats of ACCOBAMS and the UNEP/MAP on the topics concerning underwater noise and cetaceans. This MoU reinforces the cooperation between the two organisations, particularly concerning the Mediterranean Integrated Monitoring and Assessment Programme (IMAP). Within IMAP, underwater noise is addressed by the Common Indicators 26 and 27 (Impulsive and Continuous Noise, respectively).

♦ The cooperation with the Bucharest Convention, as the Secretariat of the Bucharest Convention is the Subregional Coordination Units for the ACCOBAMS Agreement in the Black Sea.

♦ The Observatory Status of ACCOBAMS at EU TG-Noise.

[1] 24 countries, including 10 EU‐Member States are Parties to ACCOBAMS  

 

4. Scope of the Data call
According ACCOBAMS Resolutions, Focal Points are requested to provide, on a voluntary basis, data concerning impulsive and continuous noise.

4.1 Impulsive noise

An impulsive noise event (simply named noise event hereinafter) is the occurrence of one or more impulsive sounds at a given time and geographical position. Impulsive sound is defined as a loud transient sound of short duration in the sea. Such definition includes pulse signals (such as those produced by airguns, explosions, and pile driving) and non‐pulse signals (such as sonars). Noise events are assessed in time and space, i.e. to compute the number of days and the amount of maritime space covered by noise events over a time window and over an assessment area. To prepare the data, the following considerations apply:

♦ The minimum duration of a noise event is 1 day: at least 1 impulsive sound is emitted during that day (e.g. an explosion)

♦When noise events last more than 1 day, then at least 1 impulsive sound is assumed to be produced for each day of duration of the noise event

♦ Noise events are always linked to a geographical reference: a point, a line or a polygon.

Noise events produced by the following human activities are sought:

♦ Pile driving. Pile driving is a conventional technique employed in many coastal and offshore constructions, such as wind farms, offshore platforms, harbour extensions etc.

♦ Airgun. The airgun is presently the most employed technology during seismic surveys. Such surveys are conducted for hydrocarbon exploration and for geophysical studies.

♦ Explosives. Underwater detonations may occur for the disposal of explosives or may be planned during maritime construction, e.g. to fragment rock prior to dredging.

♦ Sonar. Low- and mid- frequency active sonars.

Countries may consider further sources, as the register is conceived to provide an overview of all loud underwater sound sources. Hence, sparkers, boomers, echo-sounders, chirps, and more sources may be considered of interest and included in the monitoring programme of impulsive noise. Priority information required to feed the register is summarised in the following table.

Table 1. Main data to be reported

DataUnits and/or commentsPriority
Positiongeographic position (lat/long) or pre-defined block/area which can be identified through a coding system (single identifier for each block used)Required
DatesStart and end dayRequired
IntensitySource level – LS – expressed in dB re 1µPa2m2, or other quantity linked to intensity (e.g. kg of TNT for explosions, Joules for Pile Driving, etc.)Required
Source spectrumFrequency rangeAdditional
Source depthmetersAdditional
Platform speedm/s or knots, for moving sources like seismic surveysAdditional

 

⇒ Data should be compiled using the online form (Excel spreadsheet) which can also be downloaded from NETCCOBAMS following this link.

 

The submission procedure must be done through NETCCOBAMS as follows:

1. Download and compile the Excel form following the instructions contained therein

2. Create an Activity in the NETCCOBAMS platform[2] and name it “[COUNTRY NAME] NOISE DATA”

3. Go to “Documents” and drag and drop to upload the template filled up

4. The ACCOBAMS Secretariat will contact you for validation of the upload

[2] Non-registered users should request the Secretariat of ACCOBAMS to open an account.

4.2 Continuous Noise

Continuous noise is defined as “Anthropogenic continuous low-frequency sound in water”. The following data are sought:

♦ Underwater sound levels deriving from in-situ acoustic measurements related to any of the following years: 2023, 2024, 2025.

Continuous Underwater Noise data should be submitted only in HDF5 file format, raw recordings are not requested. The HDF5 file should be organized in three groups, each containing several datasets. A description of each group can be found in the tables below, where the “Field” column defines the datasets in each group, the “Status” column describes whether the dataset is mandatory or optional, the “Data type” column defines the data format in each dataset, the “Field definition” column describes the dataset, and the “Reference” column links to the controlled vocabulary for the corresponding dataset, when existent. These specifications derive from the ICES Continuous Underwater Noise Data Format[3] and were used for the previous Data Call on Continuous Noise launched by ACCOBAMS as part of the QUIETSEAS project (www.quietseas.eu)

[3] https://www.ices.dk/data/data-portals/Pages/Continuous-Noise.aspx

♦ Dataset length per file: File size should be max one month. A single file for each month and measurement station should be provided.

File information group

Field

Status

Data type

Field definition

Reference

Email

Mandatory

String (50)

Creator of the HDF5 file/ who holds responsibility for data QA and creation of the submitted hdf5 file.

 

Creation Date

Mandatory

Date Time (21)

Date of file creation. UTC Date Time in ISO 8601 format: YYYY-MM-DDThh:mm[:ss] or YYYY-MM-DD hh:mm[:ss] . Seconds are optional.

For example:

2020-04-01 11:36Z, or

2020-04-01 11:36:23Z

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ISO_8601

 

StartDate

Mandatory

Date Time (21)

Measurement collection start date. UTC Date Time in ISO 8601 format: YYYY-MM-DDThh:mm[:ss] or YYYY-MM-DD hh:mm[:ss]. Seconds are optional.

For example:

2020-04-01 11:36Z, or

2020-04-01 11:36:23Z

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ISO_8601

 

End Date

Mandatory

Date Time (21)

Measurement collection end date. UTC Date Time in ISO 8601 format: YYYY-MM-DDThh:mm[:ss] or YYYY-MM-DD hh:mm[:ss]. Seconds are optional.

For example:

2020-04-01 11:36Z, or

2020-04-01 11:36:23Z

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ISO_8601

 

Institution

Mandatory

String (6)

Institution which acquired the data.

EDMO Code

Contact

Mandatory

String (255)

Contact of all future external queries/who submits/holds responsibility for submission

 

Country Code

Mandatory

String (4)

 

 

Station Code

Mandatory

String (10)

The station code and its associated coordinates

 

Metadata group

Field

Status

Data type

Field description

Reference

Hydrophone Type

Mandatory

String (255)

This field describes the manufacturer and the used hydrophone type/model e.g. ‘Brüell&Kjaer 8106’. This field needs to be an array if there are multiple channels (one per channel).

 

Hydrophone Serial Number

Mandatory

String (50)

e.g. “SN#1234”. This field needs to be an array if there are multiple channels (one per channel).

 

Recorder Type

Mandatory

String (50)

Recorder/data logger type e.g. “Soundtrap”, “RTSys”, etc.

 

Recorder Serial Number

Mandatory

String (50)

Recorder serial number e.g. “SN#2345”

 

Measurement Height

Mandatory

Float

Height above the seafloor, in meters

 

Measurement Purpose

Mandatory

String (10)

Description of why the continuous underwater noise measurements reported were monitored

 

Frequency Count

Mandatory

Integer

Number of frequency bands

 

Frequency Index

Mandatory

Float

Third octave band nominal center frequencies. This field is an array of frequencies, with as many columns as the number of frequency bands reported under FrequencyCount.

 

Frequency Unit

Mandatory

String (10)

 

 

Channel Count

Mandatory

Integer

Number of channels used

 

Measurement Total No

Mandatory

Integer

Number of measurements

 

Measurement Unit

Mandatory

String (10)

Unit in which the values are in e.g. dB re 1μPa

 

Averaging Time

Mandatory

Integer

Averaging time in seconds

 

Processing Algorithm

Optional

String (225)

Algorithm used to process the data e.g. computation method for third octave band (fft, filter bank …)- analysis

 

Data UUID

Mandatory

String (255)

Unique identification number, linking the data submission to the corresponding raw data. It should be used for resubmissions of the same data; matlab function available: uuid = char(java.util.UUID.randomUUID);

 

Dataset Version

Mandatory

String (255)

Indicates version of the submitted dataset. It should be changed upon resubmission

 

Calibration Procedure

Mandatory

String (255)

Method used to check the measuring chain. e.g. point calibration with pistonphone, functionality test with microphone and loudspeaker (frequency dependent), or other method used to check the measuring chain. e.g. point calibration with pistonphone, functionality test with microphone and loudspeaker (frequency dependent), or other.

 

Calibration Date Time

Mandatory

Date Time (21)

Date of when the system was last calibrated. Mandatory in case “CalibrationProcedure” is specified UTC DateTime in ISO 8601 format: YYYY-MM-DDThh:mm[:ss] or YYYY-MM-DD hh:mm[:ss]. Seconds are optional.

For example:

2020-04-01 11:36Z, or

2020-04-01 11:36:23Z

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ISO_8601

 

Comments

Optional

String (255)

 

 

Data group

Field

Status

Data type

Field description

Reference

Date Time

Mandatory

Date Time (21)

UTC DateTime in ISO 8601 format: YYYY-MM-DDThh:mm[:ss] or YYYY-MM-DD hh:mm[:ss]. Seconds are optional.

For example:

2020-04-01 11:36Z, or

2020-04-01 11:36:23Z

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ISO_8601

 

LeqMeasurementsOfChannel1

LeqMeasurementsOfChannel…

LeqMeasurementsOfChannelN

 

 

Mandatory

Float

Equivalent continuous sound pressure level measurements over time for all covered frequency bands. One frequency per column. In case there are multiple channels, there should be an array of values for each channel. If there are 3 channels, there would be three arrays called LeqOfChannel1, LeqOfChannel2, LeqOfChannel3. In case of channel failure, please report NAN values.

 

The submission procedure is the following:

  1. Prepare a single file with maximum size one month, for each month submitted. The number of files should correspond to the number of months and number of recording stations for which noise data are submitted
  2. Create an Activity in the NETCCOBAMS platform[5] and name it “[COUNTRY NAME] NOISE DATA” (may be the same Activity as for impulsive noise, see section 4.1 above)
  3. Go to “Documents” and drag and drop to upload the HDF5 files
  4. The ACCOBAMS Secretariat will contact you for validation of the upload

 

Questions:

For questions about the content of the data call, please contact: secretariat@accobams.net.

For support concerning the compiling of data and its submission please contact: alessio.maglio@sinay.fr 

 

[5] Non-registered users should request the Secretariat of ACCOBAMS to open an account.