THE DARK MAP
'Dark where possible, light when necessary’
Joia&AnnaDesign studio
ABOUT US
Have you ever wondered why the milky way looks so different from one place to another? And even completely disappears sometimes?
It's caused by Light pollution.
The bright lights that help us navigate through the dark of night cause mass disruption on the day to day lives of many species especially migratory birds.
Research:
Nowadays everything that we do has a direct impact on the planet and its inhabitants. With an exponential increase in the human population. As our population grows the problems that are created become more prominent. One of those problems is the amount of artificial light at night (ALAN).
The excessive use of artificial light has more consequences than people would imagine.
Some of the effects are more noticeable for example, with more than half of the world’s population in cities, 3 out of 4 people in cities never experienced natural dark skies. Other effects are not as prominent, the disproportionate artificial light disrupts the cycles of the body such as the circadian rhythm and the production of melatonin.
One of the biggest problems is the disturbance of the ecosystems. Light pollution poses a serious threat in particular to nocturnal wildlife. Additionally,
the impact on plants and the physiology of animals are tremendous. The day to day behaviours like migratory patterns, competitive interactions between animals, and the predator-prey dynamics change.
The rhythm of life is based on the natural diurnal patterns of light and dark disrupting them by adding more light to our nights we cause more harm than good.
Migratory birds
One of the animals most affected by ALAN are the migratory birds. They need to stay close to the shore so that they have land to rest.
However, on those shores are a lot of cities and other human contraptions that produce a lot of light which work against the birds.
The stars are less visible so the birds will have more difficulty navigating.
And the most important one birds are naturally attracted to light so they get disoriented and can get serious injuries. Even if uninjured, grounded birds may be unable to take off again and are vulnerable to predation, vehicle collisions, starvation, dehydration, or poaching
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The Village project
To visualize how we can minimize light pollution by changing a few behaviours
Light pollution is a serious problem with easy solutions.
Everyone can make a difference today.
Smart lighting
The best solution to light pollution is to have no light at all.
Naturally, this is not possible because the inhabitants of the area need light to move and feel safe, but used in moderation and at specific times light can be reduced by two-thirds.
‘Dark where possible, light when necessary’
In order to achieve this it requires a new smart lighting system. This means the old street lights will be replaced with new LED lighting connected to a main wireless control system. This system is also equipped with motion detection technology that automatically adjusts the level of lighting to the number of traffic movements.
In the more inhabited area’s the light will dim between 11:00 PM and 1:00 AM and turn off completely between 1:00 AM and 5:00 AM. The lighting above important access roads will remain on. In specific area’s where there is more movement at night such as nightlife area’s lighting is dimmed to a certain value and motion detection is applied.
Greenlight for offshore companies
In the North Sea, where large numbers of nocturnally migrating birds are attracted to the many offshore platforms it is important to change the colour of the lighting. Artificial light interferes with the magnetic compass of the birds, one of several orientation mechanisms and especially important during overcast nights. migratory birds require light from the blue-green part of the spectrum for magnetic compass orientation, whereas red light (visible long-wavelength) disrupts magnetic orientation. Philips ClearSky is a lamp designed for this purpose with human demands kept in mind. For now, we can only suggest this lamp for offshore companies because the effects are not yet clear for other species than migratory birds.
By making these adjustments you help restore multiple ecosystems and by that invest in a better future. A darker sky will not only benefit the migratory birds but also us humans.
By using less and better light you will also be able to cut back a lot of electricity costs, so your investment will be rewarded in time.
