Search results for "light pollution"
showing 10 items of 21 documents
The starry sky, a territorial commons?
2021
International audience; Flagstaff, Arizona, United States, April 15, 1958: the city council adopts the ordinance n°440 which aims at “preventing a rapid deterioration of the visibility of the starry sky”. This regulation results from the mobilization of the Lowell Observatory astronomers against certain public lighting devices. Through this political act, the elected officials place their city at the epicenter of an emergent international movement: the ‘Dark-sky movement’. The first replica of this movement is felt in 1972 in Tucson, Arizona. From a discomfort perceived by astronomers from the Lowell and Kitt Peak observatories, the idea of ‘light pollution’ emerges and begins to spread thr…
Getting night lighting right taking account of nocturnal urban uses for better-lit cities
2018
Translated by Oliver Waine; International audience; Innovation in contemporary urban lighting has increasingly been driven by issues of sustainability. While environmental concerns focus attention on energy savings and reducing light pollution, taking account of how people use public spaces is important too, as artificial light can then be adjusted to actual needs. Following the pioneering work of Roger Narboni and Luc Gwiazdzinski, Samuel Challéat and Dany Lapostolle make the case for dedicated nocturnal city planning.
Blaming the Light, Claiming the Night. Actors, Issues and Effects of Lighting Conflicts in France since the 1980's
2014
International audience; Regarding environmental issues, conflictuality is a privileged way to reach the political arena. "Naming, Blaming, Claiming": three steps that make the controversy emerge, constitute the public issue, then bring it to the politi- cal agenda. These three stages are clearly identifiable in the history of night protection associative movements. These movements emerged in the 1970's in the United States of America, quickly disseminated enjoying a broader context of environmental thinking. Conflicts related to artificial lighting are structurally akin to conflicts of contradictory uses of a single resource: the night. For some - the technicists -, the night is the "good-s…
Pour une approche cognitive et multiscalaire des conflits environnementaux
2011
Starting with artificial light as new object damage and emerging environmental problem, this paper intends to develop a general reflection showing the importance of a greater consideration of cognitive dimensions of the damage and risk analysis in environmental conflicting processes. We show how the cost-benefit analysis after the neoclassical theory of production, often used in the search for Pareto-optimal state and in the policies of monetary compensation to resolve environmental conflicts can - indeed must - be strongly challenged. Also, with this reasoning, we oppose an analysis in terms of cognitive interactions that groups develop around environmental goods and items of damage, thus …
La préservation de l'environnement nocturne : les enjeux d'une controverse sociotechnique
2013
This communication explains the birth of an environmental problem, light pollution, understood as a socio-technical controversy. Over forty years, in support of the actor-network approach, it traces the conditions of its emergence, transformation and dissemination to local, national and transnational levels, and through various professional disciplines. Schematically, "environmentalists" uphold a holistic approach of "nocturnité" and define artificial light as a pollutant. Facing them, the "technicist" defend a segmented approach and define artificial light as a nuisance. The implementation of this controversy on the political agenda leads to institutional decisions that grasp it with diffi…
(Ré)concilier éclairage urbain et environnement nocturne : les enjeux d’une controverse sociotechnique
2014
International audience; Our paper explains the birth of an environmental problem, i.e. light pollution, viewed as a socio-technical controversy. Supported by the actor-network approach, it traces over forty years the conditions of its emergence, transformation and dissemination to local, national and transnational levels and through various professional disciplines. Schematically, “environmentalists” uphold a holistic approach of “nocturnality” and define artificial light as a pollutant. Facing them, the “technicist” defends a segmented approach and defines artificial light as a nuisance. The introduction of this controversy into the political agenda leads to institutional decisions that gr…
'Dark Ecological Network': strategically tackling light pollution for biodiversity and people
2021
Night-time light pollution from artificial sources can disrupt biological processes and fragment habitats. This study presents a new concept foraddressing the problem: a 'dark ecological network'. Its development involves mapping a new system of connected functional zones and corridors where dark can be preserved to help birds, bats and other taxa, and gives people the chance to experience starry skies.
GÉOCARREFOUR KEY WORDS Local level development planning, night-time, light pollution, branding, energy transition
2015
La pollution lumineuse est progressivement devenue un enjeu environnemental. Elle produit ainsi de nouveaux périmètres pour l’action publique, dans un contexte de transition énergétique incitant à modifier les pratiques d’éclairage public pour protéger la « nuit noire ». Pour les territoires de faible densité, cette vision renouvelée de la nuit constitue une « aubaine » en termes de développement territorial. Des processus différenciés de protection, de labellisation et de mise en tourisme des « ressources environnementales nocturnes » émergent, devenant ainsi un levier de la transition énergétique. For several decades, the negative impacts of artificial light on environmental mechanisms ha…
Cartographie de la pollution lumineuse zénithale en Bourgogne à partir de données de population et d'occupation du sol
2007
L'étude a pour but de fournir une première cartographie très simple de la pollution lumineuse sous SIG afin de faciliter l'interprétation géographique et, par la suite, la mise en relation avec d'autres facteurs. Bien sûr, un passage vers un modèle prédictif devient nécessaire si l'outil se destine à être une aide décisionnelle ou un outil de recherche ayant pour but d'analyser les conséquences des changements de certains de ses paramètres. Ainsi, un tel modèle pourra servir à évaluer et analyser les conséquences de la pollution lumineuse générée par la construction d'un nouveau quartier résidentiel, d'une zone indus‐ trielle, de nouvelles infrastructures routières.
Les impacts sanitaires de la lumière artificielle nocturne - Un état des lieux des connaissances et des hypothèses
2008
Face à la lumière artificielle nocturne (LAN - Light At Night - dans la littérature médicale), la recherche clinique n'en est qu'à ses prémices, dans une situation comparable à celle dans laquelle elle se trouvait face à la pollution par le bruit il y a une trentaine d'années. Pour autant, les scientifiques s'intéressent de plus en plus aux impacts que l'éclairage artificiel peut avoir sur la santé humaine par le biais d'un dérèglement des rythmes circadiens (d'environ 24 heures - du latin circa, environ, et dies, jour), cycles biologiques souvent " calés " sur l'alternance naturelle d'un jour et d'une nuit. Pour l'être humain, comme pour la plupart des espèces complexes, cette rythmicité j…