Guidance for when undertaking noise impact assessments when using explosives in the marine environment

To develop and produce guidance for marine industries in the UK that plan to use explosives (including for clearing unexploded ordnance) in the marine environment. This will cover (as a minimum): an introduction with purpose of guidance, when a noise assessment is required and the relevant consenting processes; what is required in terms of describing the activity and characteristics of the sound sources; describing species sensitivities, justifying the use of appropriate source and propagation models, recommending the parameters to be used in noise modelling (e.g. environmental) and sound exposure estimates, auditory injury criteria and metrics, and how best to present the results; as well as the information that should be captured (by the operator) once the activity is underway.

To meet the overall aim of this project (Section 2), the objectives are to provide:

1. Review key publications relating to underwater noise risk assessments of explosive noise (e.g. source characterisation, sound propagation, sound exposure modelling and criteria) summarising new findings as well as recommended methods for improving noise risk assessments of the risk of injury to marine mammals and fish from explosive noise

2. Based on the outputs of Objective 1, develop detailed UK guidance for assessing the risk of injury to marine mammals and fish posed by explosive noise.

3. Provide a protocol for sound field verification, that can be employed during the operations to verify the conclusions in the noise risk assessments. This also needs to consider the findings from the review under Objective 1.

4. Discussion of potential further improvements to noise risk assessments that may be possible to implement in explosive use assessments in the short to medium term.

Available budget

The total value of this project is £60,000 (GBP) including VAT

If interested in this project potential bidders are invited to download the following documents and complete the conflict of interest form and the acceptance form of our terms and conditions attached to the invitation to tender letter (ITT).

Additional information: The tender deadline for bid submissions has been extended from 16:00 hours on Monday 23 September 2024 to 16:00 hours on Monday 30 September 2024. **Bid submissions **Please use V2 tender Zip pack, the documents within the zip have been updated to reflect this change.