Marine Noise Register Replacement

Tender description

The MNR is a custom-built database and data input online platform for industry and regulators. It collects data from the entirety of UK waters on noisy activities such as seismic surveys, some sub bottom profiling equipment, impact pile driving, explosives, acoustic deterrent devices, some multibeam echosounders and non-classified Ministry of Defence activity. JNCC has worked with all regulators of noisy activities and the UK devolved administrations to fulfil the commitment made in the UK Marine Strategy to monitor anthropogenic underwater impulsive noise via the registry. Data are obtained by JNCC via consulting regulators' licensing online portals or are provided by developers directly using simple online forms. Data provision is mandatory in some cases and voluntary in others, dependent on the activity type and licensing procedures involved. Data are submitted on the type of activity and where and when the activity will occur or have occurred. Additional details on the activities such as sound levels and frequencies can also be submitted. Data for planned activities is submitted at the time of licence applications and once the activity has taken place, close out data is submitted within three months or less of the activity taking place. In compliance with the UK open data policy, data outputs are generated by JNCC each year and all data are available on request. Data outputs include figures, shapefiles, csv files and tables and are generated through custom built R Studio scripts. These outputs allow mainly for retrospective assessments, for example, they have been used for both UK and OSPAR regional assessments of the underwater noise pressure. The MNR is hosted and managed by JNCC and has been operational since 2015. The current MNR system has reached its digital end of life (it was built in 2015), and now has out of date frameworks (Play), and so is proving to be very unreliable. Fixing bugs and making updates has become more and more difficult to the point where the system is now unable to deploy. The replacement of the MNR system offers the opportunity to make improvements to data input (i.e., making it more user friendly and less error prone) as well as to data accessibility, in line with the UK government Open data policy. Currently, the database is open only to those inputting data, who can access their own data through its portal. Timetable • Date for return of tender: Tuesday 26 October 2021 @ 16:00 hours • Proposed start date: 15 November 2021 • Proposed end date: 31 March 2022