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Jim Barbera |
Because of the heightened interest among the ocean community for amelioration of the impact of electro- technolgy on the ocean environment, the OES has established a committee to address issues that have been and will be raised by emerging technological developments. The Environmental Technology Committee has been chartered to address the impact that emerging sensors and systems will have on the ocean environment as well as the more familiar considerations of the impact on performance of the systems. Accurate performance prediction techniques are critical to both aspects, e.g., bathymetry interaction with active sonar and the disturbance level to mammals that high energy sonars can produce. The committee is interested in providing a forum for new and novel approaches to address the issues raised for emerging/enabling technologies.
Recent efforts in system performance enhancements have focused on techniques to adapt the system to the local environment. This can be thought of as the sensor measuring the medium and setting system parameters to take advantage of the situation. Shallow water littoral regions present a challenge to accomplish this in real time as the environment changes in time and space very rapidly. This variability has been determined to be on the same scale as time on station (O (hr.)) and size of the area of interest (O (km)). In addition the impact is more pronounced than in deep water. Ongoing efforts such as ONR's Environmentally Adaptive Sonar Technology (EAST) program are attempting to develop a procedure to improve system performance by the use of in situ through-the-sensor measurements to allow adaptation to the local environment. The ultimate objective is to develop an automated, environmentally adaptive system to optimize system performance. Techniques presently being considered include neural nets, various inversion concepts and genetic algorithms. This list is by no means inclusive and all concepts are welcome for consideration and discussion.
The second area of interest is the impact on the environment of the energy introduced into the water column by present and emerging technologies. Physical interaction with mammals, interference with habitats, changes in behavior, and physiological effect issues at the forefront. Standard procedures to mitigate negative effects are needed to allow for the testing and operation of high energy ocean systems. All countries with seacoasts have instituted statutory processes to require such mitigation. Prior to testing/operational use of the new systems a plethora of documentation can be required to show that minimal impact on the natural environment. Presently procedures such as lookouts and predicted standoff ranges are used. It is reasonable to assume that some automated approach may be used in the near future. Some examples of the documentation are an Environmental Impact Statement( EIS), Environmental Assessment (EA) and take permits. Each of these has a specific purpose and criteria for use. Technologies to accurately establish standards and processes to measure them at sea are areas that OES is interested in providing a platform for discussion and ultimate acceptance by the community. For instance, what is the standard energy level to cause hearing damage to mammals and how would it be measured at sea. The Environmental Committee is interested in establishing a dialogue for the ocean community to address such issues.
OES has two formal mechanisms to accomplish these objectives, OCEANS conferences and the JOE. Peer reviewed papers, tutorials, and presentations are welcomed and encouraged. The July 2001 issue of JOE will have a special section devoted to the topic of the impact of the interaction of man made sound in the ocean with marine mammals. Papers will be accepted through 1 August 2000.
If you have an interest in assisting with this committee please contact Jim Barbera - email - j.barbera@ieee.org
Jim Barbera
Environmental Technology
Committee Chairman