Modeling and visualization of the underwater sound field associated with underwater pile driving

Abstract

As communities seek to expand and upgrade marine and transportation infrastructure, underwater noise from pile driving associated with marine construction is a significant environmental regulatory challenge. This work explores results of different transmission loss models for a site in Puget Sound and the effect of improved understanding of modeling on the extents of zones of influence. It has been observed that most of the energy associated with impact pile driving is less than about 1000 Hz. Here, analysis of the spectral content of pile driving noise is undertaken to ascertain the optimal surrogate frequency to model the broadband nature of the noise. Included is a comparison of a normal mode model, which is motivated by work presented by Reinhall and Dahl [JASA 130, 1209 (2011)], with other methods. A GIS (Geographic Information System) tool, ArcMap, is used to map the sound level over the bathymetry, which has proved to be a useful way of visualizing the impact of the noise. [Work supported by Washington Sea Grant.]