Projects :: Light Pollution
Light Pollution Group had as main goal to develop and test new
equipment/methods to measure environmental effects of light pollution.
Problem
Light Pollution?
Light Pollution (LP) is term refering to all light coming out of space it was
intended to light (street, parking lot, back yard etc). Main source of LP are
unadequate public lamps providing light for streets, monuments and other public
areas.
Consequences
- bigger power consumption (more than 30%)
- biodiversity destruction - some species (birds, fish, insects) are disappearing or their life cycle
is severly affected
- danger to public health - problems reagarding human metabolism, affecting natural bio-rythm (~30% of population
cannot sleep with light)
- disappearance of night sky
Actions
Astronomers were first concerned with LP, when in 1976 International Astronomical Union warned about rising LP.
Later it was followed by appearance of public movements concerned about conserving the sky (Dark Sky Association in
USA, Dark Sky Campaign in UK, Inqinamento luminoso in Italy).Croatian Dark Sky Association was recently
established. The next step involves law regulation and is already happening - Czech Republic voted a law in 2002,
as well as several regions of northern Italy - Lombardy, Venetto, Emilia-Romagna and Marche. Slovenia is concidering
making one such law. In the end, old lamps shoud be replaced with new ecological models. Regulation
for this exists in many places in Europe.
Aerial and night view of one part of Istrian highway (Istarski Y). It was the focus
area of research done during the school.
Research
Research has focused on one area of Istrian highway (Istarski Y) to estimate LP influence on wildlife.
Project included several activities:
- distribution and characterization of area's LP intensity including
spectral analysis of lamps placed on the highway and measurement of light
intensity over whole sky
- to make a list of area's wildlife (plants and animals)
- clorophil concentration measurement on reference ground and the one in the area
- behaviour of plants (cucamber, pelargonije) under different light conditions
Results
Final presentations given at the end of the school can be found here (size ranges from 1 to 10 MB). For smaller
presentations and briefing reports see resources.
Resources
If you have interest in the subject, you may find some of these resources useful:
Files above and many more (measurement forms, images, datasheets, briefing presentations) can be found ziped here [51 MB]. If you have
any questions about materials contact Ana Bedalov.
For the end: funny side of life.
On image you can see part of the team taking samples. Team work rulez!
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