Across the past couple of weeks, I have sent out a form called the "Outdoor Lights Survey" to gather information on different outdoor lights across the world.
The first set of data was meant to be a smaller one just to see how data collection will look like in the future. It was very successful and helped to gather a wide variety of data across the world - receiving a total of 25 responses worldwide!
VISUAL REPRESENTATION:
Here is a visual representation of the responses (Link to Map):
Here is a closer view of the US since the markers are all clumped together:
For the second batch of data, the form will be sent to more people for further examination.
DATA COLLECTED:
The main part of the form required users to select outdoor light features that they have seen in their community (within their city/town or neighboring cities/towns).
The outdoor lights options are from the International Dark Sky Association (Link), as they have done intensive research on sustainable light options.
The results are the following:
The first half of the rows, from unshielded floodlights or poorly-shielded floodlights to drop-lens canopy fixtures, are unacceptable lights since they leak light upwards to the night sky.
The second half of the rows, from full cutoff fixtures to flush mounted or side shielded under canopy fixtures, are acceptable lights since they are properly shielded to prevent light pollution.
In the poll, the 25 respondents reported a total of 129 unshielded lights, 69 shielded lights, and 2 "other" lights (commercial lighting, strip malls + comment on location).
ANALYSIS:
The results determined that respondents saw almost 2x as many unshielded lights than shielded lights.
That is absolutely shocking! I certainly expected there to be less shielded lights since I personally have not seen many of them before. But the extent of this problem is a lot larger than imagined.
I even noticed that a lot of people haven't even seen shielded lights in their areas before. Surprisingly, there weren't any noticeable trends regarding unshielded/shielded lights and location - meaning that this problem is widespread across the world.
Hopefully this data brings a lot more attention towards the light pollution issue and illustrate how this is without a doubt, a global problem.
NEXT STEPS:
I am currently sending out the same form to a larger population in this second wave of data collection. After a few weeks/months, I will also analyze this second batch of data as well.
Comments