Habitats: Managing the ecological impacts of noise on wildlife habitats for sustainable development

The aim of this PhD is to cultivate and deliver innovative and interdisciplinary research for managing ecological impacts of noise that will have demonstrable economic and social benefits. Rapid population expansion and economic development against the backdrop of climate and biodiversity crises presents major global challenges. Global society is dependent on ecosystem services, underpinned by biodiversity. In the UK alone, these ecosystem services have been valued by the Office for National Statistics in 2015 at £761 billion and human noise impacts will significantly degrade that value unless managed appropriately. We no longer consider nature to be separate from our economy and society, since it needs to be part of business, cultural and economic decision making. The Habitats project is leading the development of an international industrial and academic network to research and explore new ways and innovative technologies to better measure, understand and model the effects of noise on wildlife habitats. However, current noise pollution legislation is focused on humans; despite policy aspirations, there is no systematic approach to assessing, regulating, or mitigating noise impacts on wildlife. The objective of the Habitats project is to integrate research in the fields of ecological impacts and of environmental noise, developing management tools and processes to enable sustainable development. This project will develop the rigorous scientific evidence required for underpinning environmental noise legislation, regulation, and policy development for managing the ecological impacts of noise on wildlife habitats.