Projects per year
Abstract
Artificial lighting is strongly associated with urbanisation and is increasing in its extent, brightness and spectral range. Changes in urban lighting have both positive and negative effects on city performance, yet little is known about how its character and magnitude vary across the urban landscape. A major barrier to related research, planning and governance has been the lack of lighting data at the city extent, particularly at a fine spatial resolution. Our aims were therefore to capture such data using aerial night photography and to undertake a case study of urban lighting. We present the finest scale multi-spectral lighting dataset available for an entire city and explore how lighting metrics vary with built density and land-use. We found positive relationships between artificial lighting indicators and built density at coarse spatial scales, whilst at a local level lighting varied with land-use. Manufacturing and housing are the primary land-use zones responsible for the city’s brightly lit areas, yet manufacturing sites are relatively rare within the city. Our data suggests that efforts to address light pollution should broaden their focus from residential street lighting to include security lighting within manufacturing areas.
Original language | English |
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Article number | e61460 |
Number of pages | 9 |
Journal | PLoSONE |
Volume | 8 |
Issue number | 5 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - 6 May 2013 |
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Dive into the research topics of 'Mapping lightscapes: spatial patterning of artificial lighting in an urban landscape'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.Projects
- 2 Finished
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Transforming the Engineering of Cities to deliver Societal and Planetary Wellbeing
Engineering & Physical Science Research Council
1/05/12 → 31/12/17
Project: Research Councils
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Mapping Artificial Lightscapes:high resolution solutions to artificial light pollution in cities
Engineering & Physical Science Research Council
1/10/11 → 30/03/13
Project: Research Councils