published_or_final_version / Public Health / Master / Master of Public Health

Thesis (M.S.)--Rochester Institute of Technology, 2007. / Typescript. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 86-90).

Light pollution in urban areas - How to prevent light pollution at construction   Jakob Sjöling   Light pollution is a relatively new but rapidly growing form of pollution. Society's increasing demand for light coupled with the pace at which lighting technology evolves is accelerating that growth. The purpose of this study was to analyse how the construction industry plan and design outdoor lighting when erecting new buildings, specifically with regards to the issue of light pollution. It also investigated how local authorities work with these issues during urban planning. In both cases special interest was placed in ways to improve the planning and use of outdoor lighting in order to minimize light pollution. To this end a series of interviews were held with people in the construction industry who are involved in the planning of lighting. Interviews were also held with local officials who manages issues of lighting and the environment within the municipality of Kungsbacka, Sweden. The interviews showed that people who work with these issues were well aware that poorly planned lighting can cause glare and disturbances. They were, however, almost totally unaware of the severe danger that light at night poses to both human health and environmental stability. To remedy this, information about the risks posed by night-time lighting must be spread from the scientific community to entrepreneurs and local officials who work with lighting. There are also several areas where changes in routines can help to avoid many of the potential pitfalls threatening to cause an, otherwise good, lighting plan to fail in regards to light pollution.

This thesis deals with the problem of light pollution. In the theoretical part it brings description of the types of light pollution, effects on organisms, information about remote sensing and characteristics of satellites which are used to map light pollution. Time composition images from DMSP satellites (F10-F18) are processed in the practical part. Changes in light intensity for the period 1992 to 2013 are described using these images. During visual assessment the most noticeable changes were obvious when comparing 1992 and 2013, when significant growth of light pollution was especially visible around cities. Statistical evaluation showed increasing values in the categories which contain higher DN (digital number) value. This increase also represents a shift to a higher light intensity level. The results suggest that light pollution in the Czech Republic tends to grow.

The 24-hour day/night cycle naturally helps to maintain balance and stability within a nocturnal ecosystem. While the rhythms of the natural light-dark cycle of day and night are able maintain a stable balance with ecological and human-made activities in relation to the nature of lighting and darkness, light pollution still significantly reduces average human well-being, impacts on the visibility of faint night sky objects during the night with the naked eye and telescope, and damages the night environment. It can be defined as “every form of artificial light in the wrong place at the wrong time which creates a sky glow, glare, nuisance, and other relevant causes of environmental degradation including some properties of artificial light which emit non-environmentally friendly or inappropriate light.” Light pollution can reduce human health, interfere with the nocturnal and/or dark-sky environment, reduce transportation safety and waste lighting energy consumption. Therefore, hard laws and soft laws from international and national jurisdictions established a duty on local authorities to manage outdoor lights and control all key elements of light pollution so as to ensure that people are not exposed to risks to the night environment. These also include environmental risks arising from a sky glow when measuring the non-environmentally atmospheric smog that hangs over urban areas at night where the level of exterior lighting from outdoor light sources is relatively high. However, English law does not contain stage processes and responsibilities for local authorities to deal with all aspects of outdoor light pollution. It also does not contain powers concerning the use of certain measurable degrees of non-environmentally friendly light metric, together with powers for the Government to approve a single framework for the minimisation of sky glow in public atmospheric areas at night. The main purpose of this study is to use comparative law studies to better understand the strengths and weaknesses of light pollution laws in different jurisdictions where adopted legislation has been designed to limit light pollution from outdoor light fixtures and design, and to improve national or local light pollution regulatory frameworks by providing better outdoor lighting practices through making valuable contributions to a comparison of international, European, national and local light pollution laws and to the improvement of regulatory measures in English legal system. It also proposes to do so by illustrating key differences between England and other jurisdictions and examining a set of necessary or proportional regulatory standards to combat light pollution. This research’s review of the jurisdictions and the legal systems available for both light pollution control and sustainable lighting practices has highlighted the recent evidence of such influence of hard and soft law on legislation in selected countries. When comparative law on different jurisdictions is discussed, the influence of a comparative approach in each national or municipal light pollution law is, at most, one of finding inspiration in the procedure of establishing a number of necessary steps to reforming the English law of light pollution control in favour of a better solution. Taking legal action to reduce the effects of non-environmentally friendly or unnecessary lights at night provides an excellent opportunity to deliver further benefits to both environmental lighting practices and energy efficiency. This research also highlights the key legal aspects concerning light pollution and outlines the ways in which regulators and policy makers can make the most of the interconnections between regulatory measures to address key elements of outdoor light pollution, such as sky glow, glare and intrusive light. It is intended to outline a wider vision for how English law can prevent all key elements of light pollution. This research also comparatively examines why England should be committed to ensuring that the English regulatory measures compare favourably with the global and regional light pollution control standards in the highest performing jurisdictions, and establishes stringent legal requirements for light pollution control which measure up to the highest standards set internationally. In the final Chapter we present useful recommendations which highlight instances in which England should be able to promote the application of necessary principles and stage processes through comparative effectiveness for outdoor lighting practices by applying international, regional and national criteria for different forms of outdoor lighting practices.

The presence of artificial light at night (ALAN) is one of many contributing factors to global change today. The spectral range of ALAN can also alter the potential effects of light pollution in certain contexts which creates an exceptionally complex cascade of impacts. The purpose of this thesis was to examine the interactions of various environmental factors including ALAN on biological variables, locomotor activity and corticosterone concentration, of two species of rodent. This was accomplished by manipulating the environmental factors; environmental enrichment, temperature and lighting in captivity. A pilot field study was also conducted in order to test the future feasibility of incorporating information garnered from the laboratory study into larger scale real world experiments. The two species were collected from the field and was subsequently subjected to various light cycles, during which locomotor activity was monitored and urinary corticosterone stress hormone was assessed. Results showed that Micaelamys namaquensis, a nocturnal species, reacted favourably to the addition of enrichment by increasing activity levels whereas Rhabdomys dilectus, a diurnal species decreased activity levels while improving the strength of entrainment. Both M. namaquensis and R. dilectus decreased activity during a light cycle which simulated natural dawn and dusk patterns of light. The two species reacted differently when a 24hr ambient temperature cycle was introduced, with M. namaquensis increasing its locomotor activity and R. dilectus decreasing overall activity. M. namaquensis decreased its average activity in response to ALAN and did not show any difference in reaction towards different types of light at night. R. dilectus on the other hand increased its activity under ALAN but also showed no preference between different spectra of light at night. While corticosterone concentrations were monitored during all the environmental factor experiments, fluctuations in hormone concentrations were noted, however found to be statistically non-significant. Thus, only speculations could be made regarding the impacts of the various environmental factors on the stress physiology of M. namaquensis and R. dilectus. These results highlight the importance of considering species specific outcomes even under virtually identical circumstances. Understanding the impacts of environmental factors is crucial in order to extrapolate laboratory-based findings into real world experiments. This work can be used to further understand the impacts of different environmental factors on the circadian systems of nocturnal and diurnal rodent species as well as the potential implication of ALAN under various environmental conditions. In future, this can be combined into a large-scale field experiment in order to monitor the impacts of light pollution using the methodology elucidated during the pilot study. The results of this study show that the impacts of ALAN can be incredibly diverse and specific to the species in which they are examined. / Dissertation (MSc)--University of Pretoria, 2019. / Zoology and Entomology / MSc / Unrestricted

No description available.

Sensory pollution from artificial night-lighting and anthropogenic noise have increased at a dramatic rate over the last several decades. Alterations to the sensory environment have been found to affect wildlife in a wide variety of ways including behavioral changes, physiological responses, changes in species interactions, and altered community structure. Increased levels of light and noise pollution can originate from many sources including roads, energy development and infrastructure, and urbanization. Even remote or protected areas are not immune to the effects of increased sensory disturbances with 63 percent of protected areas within the United States found to have been exposed to a doubling of background noise levels due to anthropogenic activity and skyglow, the scattering of artificial light by the atmosphere, extending hundreds of kilometers from the source. Despite a large body of work investigating the effects of light or noise pollution acting alone, relatively few studies have examined the effects of both stimuli acting together even though they frequently co-occur. Better understanding how these stressors, especially when present simultaneously, are affecting ecosystems is critical to ongoing mitigation and conservation efforts. In Chapter 1, we investigated the effects of increased levels of light and noise pollution, both singularly and in tandem, on pinyon mouse (Peromyscus truei) activity and body condition. Using a full factorial study design allowed us to isolate the effects of both stimuli when acting alone as well as any potential interactions between the two when both were present. We used standard trapping methods across a gradient of light, noise, and both combined while also accounting for variations in moonlight, vegetative structure, and weather. We found that an increased level of artificial night-lighting resulted in lower trap success of pinyon mice while there was no effect of noise on trap success. There was no effect of elevated light levels on body condition but there was a negative effect of noise on body condition early in the season. Later in the season, neither light nor noise influenced body condition. No interactive effects between light and noise were found. In Chapter 2, we studied the effects of anthropogenic light and noise, singularly and in tandem, on species richness and community structure using camera traps in a manipulative field experiment. We investigated these effects at both the species level and the taxonomic level (nocturnal mammals, diurnal mammals, lagomorphs, birds, mesocarnivores, and ungulates). We showed that both light and noise pollution did alter species richness and that these effects can differ depending on the scale of observation. Increased levels of night-lighting had a scale-dependent effect on species richness such that increases in light levels had a negative effect on richness at the camera level, but light-treated sites had the highest estimated cumulative richness. In contrast, noise was found to have a negative effect on richness for birds. When both stimuli were present, the addition of night-lighting mitigated the effects of noise for birds. For community structure, noise-treated sites were the most dissimilar from other treatments, indicating that increased levels of anthropogenic noise likely have the largest effect on community structure in this study. We also found evidence of a possible rescue effect of light that counteracts the negative effect of noise. That is, combined treatment sites were significantly dissimilar from both light and noise sites but not from the control sites. Together, our results provide evidence that alterations to the sensory environment from anthropogenic activity can affect wild animal populations in multiple ways. As human development increases to meet the demands of growing human populations, more ecosystems will be exposed to increased levels of sensory disturbance, making the understanding of how these changes affect wildlife critical to ongoing conservation efforts.

As much as we thought about artificial lighting in planning of our urban nightscape, it is necessary to balance it with consideration regarding darkness. In response to the problems caused by artificial lighting; such as light pollution and disruption to human circadian rhythm, darkness should be seen as a value that brings balance for the environment. There are nine values of darkness in urban illumination; efficiency, sustainable, ecology, healthiness, happiness, connects to nature, stellar visibility, heritage & tradition, wonder & beauty (Stone, 2019). In Designing for Darkness, Stone (2019) described three concepts to bring darkness into urban illumination design; Incremental Darkening, Environmentally Responsive Lighting, and Urban (Dark) Acupuncture. Urban Acupuncture is an effort to revitalize area and its surroundings through intervention in the strategic key point. (Leiner, 2014). In terms of urban lighting, the concept of Urban (Dark) Acupuncture described as an attempt to accentuate a strategic location in a city with darkness (Stone, 2019). This master thesis aims to apply the Urban (Dark) Acupuncture concept into a conceptual lighting design proposal for Sudirman Street, Jakarta. Functioned as a Central Business District of Jakarta, Sudirman Street is considered as a strategic key point for the intervention. The design proposal will be focusing on pedestrian facility of the street, and final result will be evaluated by the user. Keywords: Urban Lighting, Urban Acupuncture, Light Pollution, Darkness

O impacto da poluição luminosa sobre o homem e o meio ambiente é fonte de preocupação crescente por parte dos ambientalistas. Ao mesmo tempo a população demanda quantidades crescentes de iluminação artificial para aumentar a segurança e o conforto. Com a finalidade de satisfazer a necessidade humana de iluminação com equipamentos de impacto mínimo sobre o ecossistema, realizamos o teste de diferentes equipamentos comerciais de iluminação com diferentes lâmpadas e utilizando filtros seletivos de comprimento de onda da radiação. A hipótese básica do experimento é que o homem e os insetos apresentam sensibilidade visual diferente por comprimento de onda e que a atração da iluminação artificial sobre os insetos não representa um fototropismo. Os insetos utilizam a radiação artificial como baliza. Na verdade, utilizam o contraste entre radiação de onda curta (UV e violeta) e onda média (azul e verde) para identificar o espaço no qual voar. Selecionando os comprimentos de ondas da iluminação artificial é, portanto, possível minimizar a atração. Durante dois anos foi realizada uma campanha de coleta de insetos utilizando armadilhas luminosas. Quatro tipos de sistema de iluminação foram comparados: lâmpada vapor de mercúrio a alta pressão (Hg); lâmpada a vapor de sódio a alta pressão (Na) sem e com filtro (Hg_f; Na_f) e uma armadilha sem lâmpada. Os resultados do experimento mostram que a armadilha Hg atraiu em média 70 insetos; a armadilha Na 45; a armadilha Hg_f 23 e a armadilha Na_f 16, contra apenas 8 no testemunho. Os resultados confirmam amplamente as hipóteses básicas e oferece um poderoso instrumento para a elaboração de sistemas de iluminação de impacto no que tange os insetos / The impact of light pollution on man and on the ecosystem is a rising concern among ecologists however, in the same time the human population is demanding more lighting for safety and comfort. In order to satisfy human lighting needs with a minimum impact on the ecosystem, manly on insects, we tested commercial equipments using different types of lights and using selective wavelength filters. The hypothesis underlying the experiment was that humans and insects have a different visual sensibility for wavelength, but insect attraction for lighting is not just a phototropism. Insects use artificial lighting as a landmark for navigation and contrast between short wave (UV and blue) and medium wave (green) radiation is used to screen the space. Selecting wavelength emission of the lighting systems could be possible to minimize insect attraction. In a two years long campaign we undertook insect collection tests using insect traps. We compared four lighting systems: high-pressure mercury bulb (Hg), high-pressure sodium bulb(Na) without and with UV filter (Hg_f; Na_f) and a lighting fixture with an insect trap without bulb as a control. The results of the test have shown that Hg lamp attracted an average of 70 insects by night, Na lamp 45, Hg_f 23, Na_f 16 ad Test lamp 8. The result confirm the proposed hypothesis and can be used in the elaboration of minimum impact lighting fixtures.