van der Schaar, M., Zaugg, S., Riccobene, G., Pubill, O., André, M. System architecture for real-time monitoring of noise pollution Proceedings of the 23rd Annual Conference of the European Cetacean Society, Istanbul, Turkey, p.66, Mar 2009 Abstract: The monitoring of noise pollution in the oceans has become an important topic. Increasingly, governments require monitoring during sea construction projects or operations. For example, it is important to monitor the noise produced during construction of a wind mill park, as well as the noise it produces during operation. Noise monitoring has also become one of the objectives of the European Seafloor Observation Network (ESONET), to investigate the level of noise produced around European coastlines and its impact on the environment and cetaceans especially. It is expected that all platforms under the ESONET will be equipped with a hydrophone array to allow monitoring of the environment. Presented is the architecture for noise monitoring as it is currently implemented in ESONET through the LIDO (Listening to the Deep Ocean Environment) project. The aims of the project are to detect in real-time changes in the background noise levels (natural, biological and anthropogenic), and then to identify and track the sources. As the system will be implemented in varying environments it is important to use a modular design that can be adapted easily, based on local requirements. While the system will most often run from a shore station, provisions have to be made to allow a more limited version that can run autonomously with minimal power requirements. Analysis results are streamed in real-time to a FLASH based client that allows anyone interested to monitor an area. Additionally, any data that could be of interest for research is stored in high quality and made available for download to registered users. Finally, storage of all analysis results in a database will give insight into the relation between human and cetacean activities, as well as direct comparison between the different locations that are being monitored. Project: LIDO, Listening to the Deep-Ocean Environment Project: ESONET, Network of Excellence