Urban Lighting Research Transdisciplinary Framework-A Collaborative Process with Lighting Professionals.

Catherine Pérez Vega,Franz Hölker,Karolina M Zielinska-Dabkowska

doi:10.3390/ijerph18020624

Abstract

Over the past decades, lighting professionals have influenced the experience of the night by brightly illuminating streets, buildings, skylines, and landscapes 24/7. When this became the accepted norm, a dual perspective on night-time was shaped and the visual enjoyment of visitors after dusk was prioritized over natural nightscapes (nocturnal landscapes). During this time, researchers of artificial light at night (ALAN) observed and reported a gradual increase in unnatural brightness and a shift in color of the night-time environment. As a consequence, ALAN has been identified as a relevant pollutant of aquatic and terrestrial habitats, and an environmental stressor, which may adversely affect a wide range of organisms, from micro-organisms to humans. Unfortunately, lighting professionals and ALAN researchers usually attempt to solve today’s sustainable urban lighting problems distinctive to their fields of study, without a dialogue between research and practice. Therefore, in order to translate research knowledge as an applicable solution for the lighting practice and to minimize the impact on the environment, a collaborative framework involving a transdisciplinary process with lighting professionals is crucial to potentially bring the practice, research, production, decision-making, and planning closer to each other. This paper presents a framework to help reduce the existing gap of knowledge, because appropriate lighting applications depend upon it. Access to less light polluted nightscapes in urban environments is just as important as access to unpolluted water, food, and air. This call for action towards sustainable urban lighting should be included in future lighting policies to solve the urgent environmental and health challenges facing our world.

Highlights

IntroductionMost cities and towns have a prolific network of artificial light at night (ALAN)that illuminates traffic and pedestrian routes, as well as buildings and landscapes, for visibility and to provide visitors and residents with visual enjoyment and entertainment after dusk [1,2].Over time, as the network of ALAN expanded from urban to peri-urban environments towards rural landscapes [3], the globe has endured the spread of unnatural brightness and vivid colors of light at night, which is today encroaching into new territories that were previously unlit [4].Over the past two decades, night-time studies have reported evidence on the presence of ALAN as an unintended form of anthropogenic pollution, known as light pollution (LP) [5,6] and ecological light pollution (ELP) [7] which has significantly increasedInt
We aim to provide a brief insight into the perspectives of the lighting practice and research on night-time studies, we explain the actors involved in each domain, while offering potential platforms to exchange and transfer knowledge, and we make a call for action on an improved transdisciplinary approach
The challenges of presenting collaborative perspective approaches for urban lighting research rely on decoding various opportunities and practices that include the social exchange of the actors, their professional motivation and purpose, and the collaborative nature to structure processes that encompass the diversity of ideas

Summary

Introduction

Most cities and towns have a prolific network of artificial light at night (ALAN)that illuminates traffic and pedestrian routes, as well as buildings and landscapes, for visibility and to provide visitors and residents with visual enjoyment and entertainment after dusk [1,2].Over time, as the network of ALAN expanded from urban to peri-urban environments towards rural landscapes [3], the globe has endured the spread of unnatural brightness and vivid colors of light at night, which is today encroaching into new territories that were previously unlit [4].Over the past two decades, night-time studies have reported evidence on the presence of ALAN as an unintended form of anthropogenic pollution, known as light pollution (LP) [5,6] and ecological light pollution (ELP) [7] which has significantly increasedInt. Most cities and towns have a prolific network of artificial light at night (ALAN). That illuminates traffic and pedestrian routes, as well as buildings and landscapes, for visibility and to provide visitors and residents with visual enjoyment and entertainment after dusk [1,2]. As the network of ALAN expanded from urban to peri-urban environments towards rural landscapes [3], the globe has endured the spread of unnatural brightness and vivid colors of light at night, which is today encroaching into new territories that were previously unlit [4]. Over the past two decades, night-time studies have reported evidence on the presence of ALAN as an unintended form of anthropogenic pollution, known as light pollution (LP) [5,6] and ecological light pollution (ELP) [7] which has significantly increased.

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