Holistic control of ship noise emissions

The sustainability of anthropogenic activities at sea is recently gaining more and more attention. As regards shipping, emissions from ships into the environment of various nature (engine exhaust gases, anti-fouling paints leaching, ballast exchange, releases at sea of oil and other noxious liquid or solid cargoes, of sewage and of garbage) have been recognized as sources of pollution and therefore controlled and limited since a long time. The subject of noise emission has been identified only recently. To study the problem, the EU has funded, among others, the FP7 SILENV (Ship Innovative soLutions to rEduce Noise and Vibrations) project that run from 2010 to 2012. In the present work, the holistic approach followed within the project to characterize and control the ship as a source of noise is presented. Three types of noise emissions (in air, in water and inside the ship) are analyzed highlighting peculiarities and different strategies adopted to characterize the source, the impact on the receiver and the possible solutions to set limits to the ship emissions. The project outcome included a socalled “Green Label”: a set of new prenormative requirements defined for the three main areas mentioned above.