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ALAN Conference Series

ALAN 6 will take place from 16-18.06.2020 in Lleida, Spain.

Night Sky Data to the People!

A new website presents citizen science data

Touring Exhibition

Our touring exhibition with 15 posters can be borrowed for events!

'Loss of the Night' App

The 'Loss of the Night' app measures sky brightness! Take part in a world-wide citizen science project that measures star visibility and light pollution. The app is free!

City Night Time Lapse

This growing collection of time lapse videos of nights in urban centres provides insights how city lights change throughout the course of the night

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SP05: The costs of the loss of the night

An economic analysis on the consequences of the illuminated night

Subproject 05 was carried out at the Institute for Urban and Regional Planning (ISR) at Berlin University of Technology and at the Leibniz Institute of Freshwater Ecology and Inland Fisheries (IGB).
The project examined the costs of the loss of the night. There were numerous but scattered studies and analyses of specific aspects of the inefficiencies and negative effects of excessive lighting during the night. These sudies focussed especially on the resources used for the production of artificial light and the waste of these resources as a result of inefficient systems as well as on various environmental effects of artificial light at night, e.g. on fish, insects, birds and humans' sleep and health. However, a systematic and cumulative approach to specify the economic impacts of artificial lighting at night was lacking so far.

The negative consequences of artificial light at night must – of course – be systematically compared with the positive effects of light (enhancing the freedom of human activity patterns, especially facilitating economic activity at night, but also the positive impacts on image, marketing, security, etc.). Both the costs and benefits of the increase in artificial light at night were compiled and quantified where possible based on an extensive literature review as well as on expert interviews and workshops. Due to the wide range of issues it addresses, the subproject was collaborating closely with all other subprojects in the network.

The Department of Urban and Regional Planning at the TU Berlin was in charge of this subproject. Changing societal time-structures and their impact on the economy, society and city have constituted one of the Department's focus areas for many years. Such changes are closely linked to the temporal expansion of economic activity into the night and the trend towards a 24/7 society – the availability of artificial lighting being its essential prerequisite."

Scientist is Merle Pottharst
Leader of subproject is Prof. Dr. Dietrich Henckel

Within the subprojects TP04 and TP05 a survey among residents was carried out accompanying the retrofit to LED of the public lighting in three study areas. The focus of this study was to look at thepublic perception of light and darkness and their functions. Furthermore, the retrofitting process was examined.

Scientists are Anja Besecke und Robert Hänsch.

Find links to the most important publications at our site Literature & Links.