Abstract: Artificial lighting has received increased attention from urban scholars and geographers in recent years. It is celebrated for its experimental aesthetics and experiential qualities and critiqued for its adverse effects on biological life and the environment. Yet scholars and practitioners unite in their disapproval of uniform and homogenous lighting that follows from standardised lighting technologies and design principles. Absent from debates in urban scholarship and geography, however, is any serious consideration of how lighting designers respond to such standardised measures and regulations. In this article, I address this lack of academic attention by exploring how designers overturn the restrictive challenges posed by the standards and regulations of the design and planning process. Drawing on interviews with designers involved in the lighting design of a mixed-use redevelopment project in Canning Town, East London, I demonstrate how the interpretation and translation of lighting standards and regulations resist the tendency to predetermine design aesthetics and functions. By drawing attention away from the technical specifications and numerical values that are prescribed in standards and regulations, and towards lighting’s experiential and performative effects, the article argues that lighting designers can play an important role in challenging how standards and regulations are measured, defined and maintained. Calling on urban scholars to play a more prominent role in foregrounding this process of translation, I suggest that standards and regulations can provide frameworks within which luminous differentiation and preservation of darkness can be achieved, playing a potentially crucial role in ensuring a socially and environmentally sustainable transition to energy efficient lighting.
Keywords: Regulation; Lighting; Conservation; Darkness; Planning; Society
Abstract: A substantial body of research on natural quiet and natural darkness in national
parks, and protected areas more broadly, has been reported in the scientific and professional literature in recent years. However, this literature is widely scattered over many academic and professional journals that cover both the natural and social sciences. To help integrate and synthesize this body of work, we surveyed this diverse literature and collected representative examples in a book (Manning et al. 2018). We conclude our book with a series of principles
that we have distilled to help guide park managers to protect natural quiet and natural darkness. This paper presents those principles.
Much of our book focuses on national parks in the United States, and in the remainder of this paper the phrase “the national parks” refers to them. But we feel that the principles we have derived from our review of the scientific and professional literature on natural quiet and natural darkness apply equally well to a variety of parks and protected areas in the United States and elsewhere.
Natural quiet is generally defined as the sounds of nature uninterrupted by human-caused noise, and natural darkness is darkness unaffected by human-caused light. It is important to note that natural quiet and natural darkness do not necessarily mean absolute quiet or darkness, as the natural world often generates sounds of its own (e.g., birds calling, wind blowing,
rivers rushing) and has sources of illumination (e.g., the glow of celestial bodies and the fluorescence of some plants and animals).
parks, and protected areas more broadly, has been reported in the scientific and professional literature in recent years. However, this literature is widely scattered over many academic and professional journals that cover both the natural and social sciences. To help integrate and synthesize this body of work, we surveyed this diverse literature and collected representative examples in a book (Manning et al. 2018). We conclude our book with a series of principles
that we have distilled to help guide park managers to protect natural quiet and natural darkness. This paper presents those principles.
Much of our book focuses on national parks in the United States, and in the remainder of this paper the phrase “the national parks” refers to them. But we feel that the principles we have derived from our review of the scientific and professional literature on natural quiet and natural darkness apply equally well to a variety of parks and protected areas in the United States and elsewhere.
Natural quiet is generally defined as the sounds of nature uninterrupted by human-caused noise, and natural darkness is darkness unaffected by human-caused light. It is important to note that natural quiet and natural darkness do not necessarily mean absolute quiet or darkness, as the natural world often generates sounds of its own (e.g., birds calling, wind blowing,
rivers rushing) and has sources of illumination (e.g., the glow of celestial bodies and the fluorescence of some plants and animals).
Keywords: Conservation; Planning; Regulation
Abstract: This comment explores the negative effects of light pollution and considers whether current levels of artificial light at night (LAN) warrant federal control by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). This study first identifies the negative effects of light pollution on human health and the environment, treatment of which aligns with the mission statement of the EPA. Light pollution comprises both a private and a public nuisance. Next, this comment assesses the effectiveness of the common law approach, local government, state government, and federal control over light pollution in this context to determine which form of governance is most effective. Then, EPA involvement through federal and state implemented plans, as well as federal regulation of manufacturing is investigated. Last, this comment considers the necessity of private action through an emerging legal reform called new governance, which emphasizes public-private approaches. The negative effects of light pollution on human health and the environment could eventually lead the EPA to assert control over the regulation of light pollution, but under the current presidential administration this is highly unlikely. The predicted lack of government action leads me to call for nongovernment organizations (NGOs) to step in and take action to privately regulate light pollution and mitigate its negative effects through certification regimes, insurance premium incentives, and corporate social responsibility until government exerts regulatory control.
Keywords: Society; law; light pollution; regulation; environmentalism
Abstract: Illegal sand mining activities are rampant in coastal and inland water around the world and result in increased water turbidity, reduced water transparency, damage to fish spawning sites and adverse effects on the health of aquatic ecosystems. However, many sand dredging vessels hide during the day and work at night, rendering conventional monitoring measures ineffective. In this study, illegal sand dredging activities and the associated aquatic environmental effects were investigated in Lake Hongze (the fourth largest freshwater lake in China) using both conventional daytime satellite data, including MODIS/Aqua and Landsat TM/ETM data as well as VIIRS Day/Night Band (DNB) nighttime light (NTL) data, the following results were obtained. (1) The Landsat data revealed that sand dredging vessels first appeared in February 2012 and their number (monthly average: 658) peaked in 2016, and sand dredging stopped after March 2017. (2) The VIIRS NTL data were satisfactory for monitoring nighttime illegal dredging activities, and they more accurately reflected the temporal and spatial distribution characteristics of dredging vessels due to their high frequency. (3) Observations from the MODIS data acquired since 2002 showed three distinct stages of changes in the suspended particulate matter (SPM) concentrations of Lake Hongze that were consistent with the temporal distributions of sand dredging vessels. (4) The contribution of dredging vessels to the increases in SPM concentration was quantitatively determined, and nighttime sand dredging activities were found to have disturbed the waters more significantly. (5) The effectiveness of government measures implemented at various stages to control illegal sand dredging activities were scientifically evaluated. This study provides technological support for government monitoring and the control of illegal sand dredging activities and can serve as a valuable reference for water bodies similar to Lake Hongze worldwide. The evaluation method developed in this study could potentially be applied at a global scale.
Keywords: Remote Sensing; Regulation
Abstract: We carried out field measurements to determine the contribution of advertisement and decorative lighting to local light pollution in Seoul. We used the lighting limits set by the “Light Pollution Prevention Act”, which regulates light pollution, as measuring criteria. Our results show that both advertisement and decorative lighting are significant contributors to local light pollution in Seoul. Thirty percent of advertisement lighting measured in our study areas exceeded the legal limits. Moreover, we found that certain types of advertisement lighting are more likely to cause light pollution than the others. In addition, 73% of the decorative lighting found in our sample areas exceeded the legal limits. Based on our findings, we suggest that local light pollution policies establish a curfew time when all advertisement and decorative lighting must be completely turned off. Such an approach is essential in reducing lighting levels in outdoor environments. Furthermore, it lessens the burden on law enforcement personnel, who otherwise must ensure that advertisement and decorative lighting levels are kept within the legal limits. In light of the ongoing debate over the role of lighting in public well-being and the sustainability of cities, the present study provides a discussion on the status and management policy of light pollution caused by advertisement and decorative lighting.
Keywords: Lighting; Regulation