A Systematic Review for Establishing Relevant Environmental Parameters for Urban Lighting: Translating Research into Practice

Abstract

The application of lighting technologies developed in the 20th century has increased the brightness and changed the spectral composition of nocturnal night-time habitats and night skies across urban, peri-urban, rural, and pristine landscapes, and subsequently, researchers have observed the disturbance of biological rhythms of flora and fauna. To reduce these impacts, it is essential to translate relevant knowledge about the potential adverse effects of artificial light at night (ALAN) from research into applicable urban lighting practice. Therefore, the aim of this paper is to identify and report, via a systematic review, the effects of exposure to different physical properties of artificial light sources on various organism groups, including plants, arthropods, insects, spiders, fish, amphibians, reptiles, birds, and non-human mammals (including bats, rodents, and primates). PRISMA 2020 guidelines were used to identify a total of 1417 studies from Web of Science and PubMed. In 216 studies, diverse behavioral and physiological responses were observed across taxa when organisms were exposed to ALAN. The studies showed that the responses were dependent on high illuminance levels, duration of light exposure, and unnatural color spectra at night and also highlighted where research gaps remain in the domains of ALAN research and urban lighting practice. To avoid misinterpretation, and to define a common language, key terminologies and definitions connected to natural and artificial light have been provided. Furthermore, the adverse impacts of ALAN urgently need to be better researched, understood, and managed for the development of future lighting guidelines and standards to optimize sustainable design applications that preserve night-time environment(s) and their inhabiting flora and fauna.

Conceptual steps to minimize energy consumption of exterior lighting in Greece: The role of façade and road lighting

“…Even when LEDs are used, the streets usually are over-illuminated, as lighting requirements indicated by norms [17] are not applied because of either the authorities or the designer's insecurity. Also, although it is obligatory by Greek legislation to have compliance with the EU Technical Reports [20] and proven the benefits of using corelated color temperature of 3000K [6,10] in the most up to date applications a value of 4000K has still been installed. This malpractice might be a result of the obsolete Technical Directive of Technical Chamber of Greece of street lighting [27] that still proposes the use of 4000K or less.…”

“…Lighting can affect viewers' motion when walking close to the respective area while also creating a pole of attraction [4]. However, an inappropriate external lighting design can cause nuisance and can IOP Publishing doi:10.1088/1755-1315/1196/1/012100 2 be harmful to environment and peoples' health [5][6][7][8]. It may also be a source of light pollution [9,10].…”

Toward a Spectrophotometric Characterization of the Chilean Night Sky. A First Quantitative Assessment of ALAN across the Coquimbo Region

“…Light pollution is today acknowledged as a global problem that, similar to other forms of anthropogenic pollution, has significant impacts on ecosystems and wildlife, causing adverse effects on living organisms (Chepesiuk 2009;Bennie et al 2015;Irwin 2018;Manríquez et al 2019;Svechkina et al 2020). Originally discussed by the professional astronomical community, which was concerned that the inefficient, unnecessary, and uncontrolled use of artificial light at night (hereafter ALAN) could dazzle professional observatories by impeding their vision of the starry sky (Walker 1970;Riegel 1973), nowadays ALAN has become a fertile field for interdisciplinary scientific research (e.g., Maggi & Benedetti-Cecchi 2018;Admiranto et al 2019;Jechow 2019;Cavazzani et al 2020Cavazzani et al , 2022Kolláth et al 2020), socio-economic studies (e.g., Nordhaus 1994;Gallaway et al 2010;Pérez Vega et al 2022), and wide-ranging cultural debates (e.g., Drake 2019; Hamacher et al 2020).…”

Effects of light pollution on Bluegill foraging behavior

“…By interfering with the "advertisement calls" used by male anurans during the breeding season to attract mates, pulsing lights have the potential to reduce reproductive success and recruitment in these species (Baker and Richardson 2006;Dias et al 2019). There is growing evidence to suggest that unpredictable changes in light intensity and stability (i.e., stable vs. intermittent light) can substantially alter animal behavior, but this aspect of light pollution remains understudied (Lafitte et al 2022;Pérez Vega et al 2022).…”