Assessing noise impacts on wildlife under the National Environmental Policy Act.

Abstract

Under the National Environmental Policy Act, authors must address environmental impacts of various anthropogenic actions on wildlife. One such impact of increasing awareness and concern is effect noise on wildlife, both during construction and operation of the project. However, biologists often have difficulty in understanding the fundamentals of acoustics and noise analysts often have difficulty in understanding the biological implications of increased noise on wildlife. As a result, inappropriate weighting metrics (such as A-weighted decibel) or time descriptors (e.g., community noise equivalent level) are often used erroneously to assess noise impacts on wildlife. Noise exposure thresholds on wildlife exist for marine mammals and fish, as mandated by the National Marine Fisheries Service. However, no such thresholds exist for terrestrial wildlife. This talk provides specific examples of how noise impacts on wildlife have been assessed using GIS-based technology, industry-accepted noise propagation models, and peer-reviewed literature in the absence of management guidelines. Examples include assessing construction noise impacts on the California coastal gnatcatcher in southern California, aircraft noise impacts on sage grouse in central California, and helicopter disturbance on caribou in Alaska.

Evaluación del ruido ambiental en espacios naturales protegidos: implicaciones para su gestión

“…In the present case study, a mean difference of 0.6-1.0 dB between results at calculation heights of 4 m and 20 m above ground matches in the same order than differences when comparing noise modeling precision showed by different computer programmes or whether varying the accuracy in the digital terrain model (Arana et al, 2010;. Therefore, noise mapping may become a useful tool on assessing and predicting anthropogenic impacts on the wilderness as intended by green regulation such as the National Environmental Policy Act in the United States (Wisdom, 2008) or the European Directive 011/92/EU (2011). Even more, noise modelling allows assessing present, past or future scenarios for different disturbing sources (Iglesias Merchan and Diaz-Balteiro, 2013).…”

“…En ocasiones, estos lugares, ambientalmente sensibles, se convierten en un objeto de reclamo y el mero hecho de su declaración puede inducir un incremento de la presión humana sobre dichos espacios (Leung, 2012). Este aspecto contradictorio de la protección de la naturaleza preocupa especialmente a la comunidad científica y en ámbitos conservacionistas, mientras que otros actores implicados pueden interpretarlo como un aliciente para el impulso socioeconómico de las comarcas donde se ubican los espacios protegidos (Wisdom, 2007;Salerno et al, 2013). La gestión de esta situación se vuelve delicada, a veces conflictiva y en ocasiones genera un perjuicio en aquéllos lugares con evidentes desequilibrios de relación entre el uso público y su capacidad de carga (Kerkvliet y Nowell, 2008).…”

“…Por su propia naturaleza y definición, los espacios protegidos fomentan la existencia de actividades de intereses contrapuestos que originan situaciones difícil de gestionar: la conservación de la naturaleza y el fomento de la biodiversidad frente a la oferta y promoción de estos lugares como espacios de recreo, educación y sensibilización o incluso del turismo en sus zonas de influencia (Leung, 2008;Di Giulio et al, 2009;Benfield et al, 2010). Un conflicto paradójico toda vez que las anteriores finalidades se encuentran entre las competencias y múltiples objetivos de las administraciones responsables de su gestión (Fristrup, 2007;Wisdom, 2007;McGarigal et al, 2001). Su gestión debe incluir todas las actuaciones que tienen por objeto, por un lado preservar y mejorar la calidad acústica del territorio y, por otro lado, prevenir o reducir la contaminación por ruido.…”

“…This is a way to improve rigor in ecological effects assessment from decision-making at a planning level to post-construction stages (Lesbarrères and Fahrig, 2012). There is a growing interest in developing functions or predictions from noise models to assist assessing noise impacts on wildlife (Fristrup, 2011;Wisdom, 2008) in a similar way than guidelines developed by regulatory agencies of several countries for marine species (Weir and Dolman, 2007). But generalizing across species is likely not practical because of the differences in the effects of noise among bird species (Dooling et al, 2005).…”