• 60% of Europe’s population cannot see the Milky Way and 83% of the world’s population lives under artificial night sky light.

• CITIC of UDC hosted a summer course advocating for intelligent, healthy, and efficient night lighting.

• Slowlight seeks a new lighting culture aligned with the goals of the urban agenda 2020-2030, favoring energy transition and responsible use of resources.

 A Coruña, July 30, 2024.- More and more cities never sleep, not precisely because there is “something in the air that makes sleeping useless” as Simone de Beauvoir said about New York, but rather in their sky. The current lifestyle requires a great demand for energy and consumption, making the over-illumination of our cities an increasing problem that affects both human health and our ecosystems. This was highlighted in the summer course “New tools and technologies for redesigning the night landscape as an agent of urban transformation”, promoted by UDC in collaboration with the Slowlight Foundation and recently held at CITIC.

The initiative, which stems from the commitment of Universidade da Coruña to the Slowlight initiative signed on March 5, 2021, aims to promote responsible lighting and reduce light pollution. To this end, proposals were presented at CITIC to enjoy a quality, coherent, and harmonious urban night landscape.

Among the initiatives presented in this course, the Gaia4Sustainability project stands out, in which CITIC collaborates. Within it, a night brightness model was created based on data from the Gaia satellite of the European Space Agency (ESA) and a low-cost photometer called FreeDSM was developed to measure light pollution in a standardized and accessible way for citizens, in coordination between the University of Barcelona and CITIC of Universidade de A Coruña.

Hidden Stars

The night landscape of our cities has historically been neglected, resulting in over-illumination problems that affect both human health and ecosystems. In fact, as highlighted in the course, 60% of Europe’s population cannot see the Milky Way and 83% of the world’s population lives under the effects of CL, zenith sky brightness >14mcd/m2; that is, under artificial night sky light.

In fact, new satellite observation technologies were presented during the course, demonstrating the evolution of over-illumination in our cities.

Night lighting has also been analyzed from different perspectives. It has been highlighted that people’s habits significantly influence the night lighting of cities. When urban areas remain active at night due to commercial, recreational, or social activities, the demand for public lighting increases. Adequate lighting not only improves visibility, reducing accidents and facilitating mobility, but also acts as a deterrent against crime. For women, good lighting in streets, parks, and public transport stations is crucial, as it reduces the feeling of vulnerability and the risk of aggression.

Spain, one of the countries with the highest light pollution

According to the Earth at night map, Spain is one of the countries in the European Union with the most light pollution and where there is the highest public lighting expenditure per inhabitant. And the consequences of light pollution go far beyond the simple impossibility of seeing the stars from large cities. This excess of artificial light directly affects our health by altering the natural cycle of light and darkness, which is fundamental to regulate our biological rhythm and ensure restful sleep.

Furthermore, scientists have warned that this pollution not only affects people but also a wide variety of living beings, from plants to animals, that share our environment and whose existence is threatened. To mitigate these effects, it is crucial to implement responsible lighting that does not imply the total renunciation of artificial light but does require common sense and sustainable habits, thus improving our quality of life and contributing to energy savings, as highlighted in the summer course held at CITIC. In this way, it will not be necessary to move too far from the city to once again enjoy the stellar spectacle.