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Bennie, J., Davies, T. W., Inger, R., Gaston, K. J., & Chisholm, R. (2014). Mapping artificial lightscapes for ecological studies. Methods Ecol Evol, 5(6), 534–540.
Abstract: Artificial illumination of the night is increasing globally. There is growing evidence of a range of ecological impacts of artificial light and awareness of light pollution as a significant environmental issue. In urban and suburban areas, complex spatial patterns of light sources, structures and vegetation create a highly heterogeneous night-time light environment for plants and animals.
We developed a method for modelling the night-time light environment at a high spatial resolution in a small urban area for ecological studies. We used the position and height of street lights, and digital terrain and surface models, to predict the direct light intensity at different wavelengths at different heights above the ground surface. Validation against field measurements of night-time light showed that modelled light intensities in the visible and ultraviolet portions of the spectrum were accurate. We show how this model can be used to map biologically relevant lightscapes across an urban landscape. We also illustrate the utility of the model using night-time light maps as resistance surfaces in the software package circuitscape to predict potential movement of model nocturnal species between habitat patches and to identify key corridors and barriers to movement and dispersal. Understanding the ecological effects of artificial light requires knowledge of the light environment experienced by organisms throughout the diurnal and annual cycles, during periods of activity and rest and during different life stages. Our approach to high-resolution mapping of artificial lightscapes can be adapted to the sensitivity to light of different species and to other urban, suburban, rural and industrial landscapes. Keywords: light pollution; urban ecology; landscape ecology; diurnal; nocturnal; night; light
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Edensor, T. (2013). Reconnecting with darkness: gloomy landscapes, lightless places. Social & Cultural Geography, 14(4), 446–465.
Abstract: This paper investigates the effects and affects of darkness, a condition that is progressively becoming less familiar for those of us in the over-illuminated West. In countering the prevailing cultural understanding that darkness is a negative condition, I draw attention to other historical and cultural ways of positively valuing darkness. Subsequently, in drawing on two sites, a gloomy landscape at a dark sky park in South Scotland, and a tourist attraction in which a simulation of New York is experienced in a completely dark environment, I explore the multivalent qualities of darkness. In foregrounding the becoming of sensory experience in gloomy space, I highlight the mobilisation of alternative modes of visual perception in as well as the emergence of non-visual apprehensions, and suggest that the potentialities of darkness might foster progressive forms of conviviality, communication and imagination.
Cet article interroge les effets et les affects de l'obscurité, une condition qui devient de moins en moins courante pour ceux parmi nous dans l'occident sur-illuminé. Pour s'opposer à la compréhension culturelle dominante que l'obscurité est une condition négative, j'attire l'attention aux autres façons historiques et culturelles de faire valoir l'obscurité. Ensuite, en tirant de deux sites—l'un, un paysage sombre à un parc de ciel obscure dans l'Ecosse du Sud, et l'autre, une attraction touristique dans laquelleon a une expérience d'une simulation de New York dans un environnement complètement noirci—j'examine les qualités polyvalentes de l'obscurité. En mettant en premier plan l'émergence de l'expérience sensorielle dans l'espace sombre, je souligne la mobilisation des modes alternatives de la perception visuelle ainsi que l'émergence des appréhensions non-visuelles, et je suggère que les potentialités de l'obscurité puissent encourager des formes progressives de la convivialité, la communication, et l'imagination. Este artÃculo explora los efectos y los afectos asociadosa la oscuridad, una condición que resulta cada vez menos familiar para aquellos de nosotros que vivimos en unOccidentehiperiluminado.A los fines de contrarrestar la perspectiva cultural predominante que le asigna a la oscuridad una valoración negativa, pretendo llamar la atención sobre otras formas históricas y culturales que le otorgan un valor positivo a la oscuridad. Luego exploro las cualidades polivalentesde la oscuridad mediante el estudio de dos sitios: el paisaje sombrÃo de un parque sin iluminación artificial en el sur de Escocia y una atracción turÃstica en el que se simula la ciudad de Nueva York, experimentada en un ambiente completamente oscuro.A los fines de dar cuenta del desarrollo de experiencias sensoriales en espacios sombrÃos, destaco la movilización de modos alternativos de percepción visual asà como también la emergencia de formas de aprehensión no visuales Además,sugiero que la oscuridad tiene el potencial para promoverformas de convivencia, comunicación e imaginación progresistas. Keywords: Culture; darkness; illumination; perception; sensation; landscape; space; obscurité; illumination; perception; sensation; paysage; espace; oscuridad; iluminación; percepción; sensación; paisaje; espacio
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Loveridge, A., Duell, R., Abbari, J., & Moffatt, M. (2014). Night Landscapes: A Challenge to World Heritage Protocols. Landscape Rev., 15(1), 64–75.
Abstract: Starlight reserves are a relatively new concept whose definition and management protocols have come about in an era when understandings of human relationships with nature are dynamic and infused with cultural meaning. Rather than assuming that pristine nature can be sealed off from human influences, World Heritage guidelines now accept that our experience of nature may be enriched by attention to the multifunctional landscape, in which a blend of aesthetic, historical, cultural, scientific and environmental elements are carefully presented to tourists. Observatories and clear night skies are ideal sites for such an interface, and the loss of dark skies has led to new systems of audit aimed at their preservation. This
study of the potential for a World Heritage Site in the Mackenzie Basin, in the South Island of New Zealand, grounds the interaction between World Heritage goals and management of land use in a place where exceptional sky quality and competing land uses challenge multiple stakeholders to rethink their concepts of landscape |