City Light or Star Bright: A Review of Urban Light Pollution, Impacts, and Planning Implications

Abstract

Light pollution (LP) is a growing scourge in metropolitan areas yet is largely ignored by planners. It has negative impacts on the health of humans and of wildlife and threatens views of the night sky. This article reviews adverse impacts in multiple categories, highlights mitigation strategies, and makes the case for more engagement in planning scholarship and practice especially in the United States. Defining LP and balancing competing values in its mitigation are political acts, challenged by, among other things, lack of public awareness, the primacy of energy efficiency among factors in decision-making, and the association of more light with greater security.