Data collection for port noise monitoring

The impact of noise generated by harbour actives gained a very important role in the last years. While the evaluation of the noise impact of industrial plants and transportation is fully integrated in the activities of noise mapping in urban areas, a lack of regulation exists regarding the activities carried out in ports. The complaints of citizens living close to the harbours pushed the authorities to face the problem. In this context several EU Interreg Maritime research projects have been launched in last few years. Each project is focused on a specific aspect of the problem, but all of them have in common the implementation of a network of sensors aimed to the monitoring of the noise for long periods of time. Such monitoring activity will generate a huge amount of data that must be collected, integrated and stored in a proper database in order to be accessed in a second time. The data can then be used for the management of the harbour (e.g.: by changing the docking position of ships) or to support the decision making in terms of mitigation strategies. In this paper possible ways of storing and managing the data will be described. Keywords: noise monitoring; harbour noise; database; noise pollution; environmental noise.