Modeling Underwater Noise in the North Adriatic Sea

The Adriatic Sea hosts numerous Natura 2000 sites and protected areas but it is an underwater noise hot spot in the Mediterranean Sea. This calls for managing measures. The SOUNDSCAPE project developed for a transnational assessment of the underwater sound in the Northern Adriatic Sea. Underwater sound modeling at the basin scale was performed by Quonops© by using oceanographic data developed by CNR-ISMAR as input data, together with automated information system (AIS) vessel data. Acoustic measurements based on nine monitoring stations were used to calibrate the model. A yearlong (2020) 3D simulation was run, and two sets of monthly maps were produced: the “natural ambient noise” based on the oceanographic data and the “baseline ambient noise” created by adding to natural maps the ship traffic (AIS data). Maps showing sound pressure levels for four one-third octave bands centered at 63 Hz, 125 Hz, 250 Hz, and 4000 Hz were calculated for three depth ranges. This first atlas of maps contributes to filling a relevant knowledge gap about the underwater sound distribution in the study area.