Noise Assessment of Small Vessels for Action Planning in Canal Cities

Abstract

After the European Environmental Noise Directive prescribed noise maps and action plans, wide scientific literature and a consistent number of mitigation strategies emerged for road, railway, airport, and industrial noise. Unfortunately, very little attention has been paid to the noise produced by ports in their surroundings, even though there could be many areas affected by it. At present, more attention seems to be paid to noise produced underwater, mostly for military and security reasons and for its interference with wildlife, rather than airborne noise and its influence on human health. In the framework of a project aiming to shed more light on a topic so far under-investigated, this paper presents an acoustical characterization of different small vessels at various speeds that move around on a daily basis in every type of port, produced by means of short- and long-term measurements. The new information acquired was used to produce a map of noise generated by vessels moving in Livorno’s canals, which branch off in a densely inhabited area. The simulations were validated using long-term measurement. The number of citizens exposed was also estimated and used to calculate the number of highly annoyed people according to the recent curve for road traffic noise proposed by Guski et al. In order to prevent citizen exposure to noise and possible complaints about small boats, different scenarios and possible future situations such as various vessel speeds, limited flow, restricted areas for some categories, or new residential areas were studied.

Occupational Exposure on Board Fishing Vessels: Risk Assessments of Biomechanical Overload, Noise and Vibrations among Worker on Fishing Vessels in Southern Italy

“…In fact, knowing the emitting source, is important to avoid noise high noise exposure and noise complaints to citizens living in the nearby of port and avoid the well-known effects compromising people health [24]. In order to prevent these, also in port areas, in the very recent years, studies are growing exploring the noise emitted by ships, with a special focus on fishing vessels [25].…”

Port Noise and Complaints in the North Tyrrhenian Sea and Framework for Remediation

“…Inside the port of Livorno, ARPAT and the Department of Physics of the University of Pisa performed a preliminary study on noise impact generated by recreational craft in the city's internal canals [36]. Through long and short duration pass-by measures, the emissions of two distinct categories of small craft were characterized: recreational craft and small and medium-sized fishing vessels and boats of the police force.…”

Pass-by Characterization of Noise Emitted by Different Categories of Seagoing Ships in Ports

“…To the best of the authors' knowledge, only a few studies have been dedicated to moving ships: Badino et al [53] reported a measurement methodology, Di Bella et al [54] and Fausti et al [55] performed pass-by measurements of cruise ships, while Bernardini et al [56] characterized the sound power level of small vessels moving in channels.…”