Perceptions, Practices and Principles: Increasing Awareness of ‘Night Sky’ in Urban Landscapes

In urban centres the natural cycles of day and night have dramatically been altered by artificial lighting, creating a perpetually lit environment that is rarely considered an issue. Artificial lights are illuminating roadways, structures and public plazas with lighting schemes that are, in most cases, inefficient. Consequently, light pollution has greatly impacted the night by reflecting and refracting light into the atmosphere. Without appropriate consideration of integrating artificial lighting into the urban environment, our “night sky” experience is at risk due to poor approaches to public realm design. This study qualitatively explores light pollution analyzing it based on the environment, society and economy as a whole. A literature review, key informants, and case studies contribute to a greater understanding of light and create a framework to develop a design reference to light efficient urban development. This study examines the need for a shift in public perception, broadening an understanding of the effects of light pollution, and provides design considerations to aid urban night sky awareness, planning and design.

Download Full-text

Let’s turn off the lights and turn on the night: to the rescue of starlight in an age of artificial lighting

Proceedings of the International Astronomical Union ◽

10.1017/s1743921321000910 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 15 (S367) ◽

pp. 328-331

Author(s):

Andrea Sosa

Keyword(s):

Milky Way ◽

Light Pollution ◽

Global Level ◽

Light At Night ◽

Artificial Lighting ◽

Inappropriate Use ◽

Turn On ◽

Science Philosophy ◽

Night Sky

AbstractOur ancestors contemplated an inspiring night sky of science, philosophy, art … today, it is estimated that one third of the world’s population have never seen the Milky Way. The progressive degradation of the quality of the night sky due to an inappropriate use of the artificial light at night, as well to other sources of sky pollution, must be considered as the fundamental loss of a scientific, cultural and environmental heritage of humanity.In this public talk we summarized the most relevant aspects of light pollution, the reasons for promoting good lighting to protect dark skies, and some of the initiatives at a global level that are being developed to preserve the darkness of the night sky.

Download Full-text

Study on the Change Characters of the Urban Spatial Light Pollution from Ground to Zenith

10.20944/preprints201811.0292.v1 ◽

2018 ◽

Author(s):

Ming Liu ◽

Baogang Zhang ◽

Qingli Hao ◽

Xiaowei Guo ◽

Weishan Li

Keyword(s):

Urban Space ◽

Urban Canopy ◽

Light Environment ◽

Ground Layer ◽

Color Temperature ◽

Light Pollution ◽

Canopy Layer ◽

Artificial Lighting ◽

Urban Canopy Layer ◽

Night Sky

As the problem of light pollution becomes more serious, more and more scholars pay attention to this issue and carry out related research. In the perspective of cities, the measurements of light pollution mainly focus on the brightness of the sky or artificial lighting on the ground. However, there is lack of research on the whole urban space. With the two-dimensional brightness analyses, this paper processes the changes of the light environment of the whole urban space into image quantization. It gets the 3D and 2D light environment changes of luminance distribution, color temperature distribution and chromaticity in the three space layers, the ground layer, the urban canopy layer and the sky layer, from dusk with natural light to night with artificial lighting completely. It is found that the brightness difference between the light environments among the three city levels gradually reduces with the measuring time, and the final values maintain at 0.11~0.25 cd/m2. In the ground layer, the light environment is mainly affected by the lighting facilities, and vegetation can prevent the light from scattering up. The light environment of the urban canopy layer is the brightest in the whole city space and has the largest influence on the sky layer. The color concentrates in the range of yellow and red. The color temperature near the ground distributes in 3000K~15000K, and near the sky distributes in 2300K~2700K which is warmer than the natural night sky. The sky brightness of Dalian city is about 951 times than the natural night sky. 

Download Full-text

Contributions of artificial lighting sources on light pollution in Hong Kong measured through a night sky brightness monitoring network

Journal of Quantitative Spectroscopy and Radiative Transfer ◽

10.1016/j.jqsrt.2013.12.014 ◽

2014 ◽

Vol 139 ◽

pp. 90-108 ◽

Cited By ~ 47

Author(s):

Chun Shing Jason Pun ◽

Chu Wing So ◽

Wai Yan Leung ◽

Chung Fai Wong

Keyword(s):

Hong Kong ◽

Monitoring Network ◽

Light Pollution ◽

Artificial Lighting ◽

Sky Brightness ◽

Night Sky ◽

Night Sky Brightness

Download Full-text

The Role of Artificial Lighting in Architectural Design: A Literature Review

IOP Conference Series Earth and Environmental Science ◽

10.1088/1755-1315/665/1/012008 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 665 (1) ◽

pp. 012008

Author(s):

Anthony Sholanke ◽

Oladimeji Fadesere ◽

Daniel Elendu

Keyword(s):

Literature Review ◽

Architectural Design ◽

Artificial Lighting

Download Full-text

Design of Consumables in a Resource-Efficient Economy—A Literature Review

Sustainability ◽

10.3390/su13031036 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 13 (3) ◽

pp. 1036

Author(s):

Siri Willskytt

Keyword(s):

Life Cycle ◽

Literature Review ◽

Product Design ◽

Circular Economy ◽

Design Guidelines ◽

The Novel ◽

Specific Design ◽

Design Considerations ◽

Life Cycle Perspective ◽

General Product

Consumable products have received less attention in the circular economy (CE), particularly in regard to the design of resource-efficient products. This literature review investigates the extent to which existing design guidelines for resource-efficient products are applicable to consumables. This analysis is divided into two parts. The first investigates the extent to which general product-design guidelines (i.e., applicable to both durables and consumables) are applicable to consumables. This analysis also scrutinizes the type of recommendations presented by the ecodesign and circular product design, to investigate the novel aspects of the CE in product design. The second analysis examines the type of design considerations the literature on product-type specific design guidelines recommends for specific consumables and whether such guidelines are transferable. The analysis of general guidelines showed that, although guidelines are intended to be general and applicable to many types of products, their applicability to consumable products is limited. Less than half of their recommendations can be applied to consumables. The analysis also identified several design considerations that are transferable between product-specific design guidelines. This paper shows the importance of the life-cycle perspective in product design, to maximize the opportunities to improve consumables.

Download Full-text

Surface Infrastructure Planning and Design Considerations for Future Lunar and Mars Habitation

Lunar Settlements ◽

10.1201/9781420083330-38 ◽

2010 ◽

pp. 405-418

Keyword(s):

Infrastructure Planning ◽

Design Considerations ◽

Planning And Design

Download Full-text

Light pollution in the night sky of Toruń in the summer season

Bulletin of Geography Physical Geography Series ◽

10.2478/bgeo-2019-0017 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 17 (1) ◽

pp. 91-100 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Dominika Karpińska ◽

Mieczysław Kunz

Keyword(s):

Land Cover ◽

Land Development ◽

Summer Season ◽

City Centre ◽

Light Pollution ◽

Single Family ◽

Family Housing ◽

Sky Brightness ◽

Night Sky ◽

The City

Abstract The paper presents results of research on light pollution in the night sky of Toruń. A permanent network of measuring stations has been established in the city, consisting of 24 sites representing various types of land development and land cover: single-family housing, city centre, multi-family housing, areas overgrown with vegetation and open areas. Within this network, a repeatable direct measurement of the sky brightness using an SQM photometer was carried out over a period of three consecutive months in the summer season, i.e. from June to September 2017. The measurement sessions were conducted in similar weather and astronomical conditions. Based on the obtained data, a spatial distribution of light pollution was determined, ranges of values obtained during the measurements were provided, and the results were additionally referred to the distinguished land cover categories and land development types.

Download Full-text

Light pollution around Tonantzintla Observatory

Proceedings of the International Astronomical Union ◽

10.1017/s1743921311003589 ◽

2009 ◽

Vol 5 (S260) ◽

Author(s):

José A. Vázquez-Mata ◽

Héctor M. Hernández-Toledo ◽

Luis A. Martínez-Vázquez ◽

Atanacio Pani-Cielo

Keyword(s):

Continuous Monitoring ◽

Astronomical Observatory ◽

Light Pollution ◽

Local Authorities ◽

The North ◽

Large Growth ◽

Sky Brightness ◽

Night Sky ◽

Sky Conditions

AbstractBeing close to the cities of Puebla to east and Cholula to the north, both having potential for large growth, the National Astronomical Observatory in Tonantzintla (OAN-Tonantzintla) faces the danger of deteriorating its sky conditions even more. In order to maintain competitiveness for education and scientific programs, it is important to preserve the sky brightness conditions. through: 1) our awareness of the night sky characteristics in continuous monitoring campaigns, doing more measurements over the next years to monitor changes and 2) encouraging local authorities about the need to regulate public lighting at the same time, showing them the benefits of such initiatives when well planed and correctly implemented.

Download Full-text

Emission spectra of light-pollution sources determined from the light-scattering spectrometry of the night sky

Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society ◽

10.1093/mnras/stz3260 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 491 (4) ◽

pp. 5586-5594

Author(s):

Miroslav Kocifaj ◽

František Kundracik ◽

Ondrej Bilý

Keyword(s):

Light Scattering ◽

Field Experiments ◽

Spectral Composition ◽

Emission Spectra ◽

Pollution Sources ◽

Light Pollution ◽

Ambient Atmosphere ◽

Artificial Light ◽

Measuring Device ◽

Night Sky

ABSTRACT The emission spectrum of a light-pollution source is a determining factor for modelling artificial light at night. The spectral composition of skyglow is normally derived from the initial spectra of all artificial light sources contributing to the diffuse illumination of an observation point. However, light scattering in the ambient atmosphere imposes a wavelength-specific distortion on the optical signals captured by the measuring device. The nature of the emission, the spectra and the light-scattering phenomena not only control the spectral properties of the ground-reaching radiation, but also provide a unique tool for remote diagnosis and even identification of the emission spectra of the light-polluting sources. This is because the information contained in the night-sky brightness is preferably measured in directions towards a glowing dome of light over the artificial source of light. We have developed a new method for obtaining the emission spectra using remote terrestrial sensing of the bright patches of sky associated with a source. Field experiments conducted in Vienna and Bratislava have been used to validate the theoretical model and the retrieval method. These experiments demonstrate that the numerical inversion is successful even if the signal-to-noise ratio is small. The method for decoding the emission spectra by the light-scattering spectrometry of a night sky is a unique approach that enables for (i) a systematic characterization of the light-pollution sources over a specific territory, and (ii) a significant improvement in the numerical prediction of skyglow changes that we can expect at observatories.

Download Full-text