Underwater assessment of anthropogenic noise sources using a field recording method

Concern about underwater noise has been increasing due to the high number of projects needing environmental impact assessment to know how the underwater environment could be a ected by pollutant noise, especially when living beings are involved. Since in countries like Chile there is no current legislation about anthropogenic underwater noise, the main objective of this work was to face this topic in Chile. To achieve it, noise sources present in rivers from Valdivia City -located in south center Chile- were evaluated. Underwater and airborne noise emissions measurement, coming from a high number of anthropogenic noise sources, both mobil and stationary, were carried out under controlled conditions and low natural background noise. Measurements were carried out both in summer and winter seasons, between December 2015 and March 2017. To have a database of sources measured with low background noise, takes a relevant value when working with mathematics models of acoustic prediction.