Abstract
Sky glow, a kind of light pollution, which brightens the night sky significantly results from the spill light of inappropriate or over-designed artificial lighting. It not only affects astronomical observations, but disturbs ecology system and wastes lighting energy. In fact, urban light pollution is related to artificial lighting made from human activities and nighttime urban facilities. However, former relative researches mostly concerned how to utilize remote sensing to evaluate large-scale sky glow for astronomy, not for urban or architectural lighting to improve the real environmental problem. The purpose of this research is to find the relation between sky glow and urban planning, especially urban population density and land zoning. The study surveyed the sky glow and then mapped it in Taichung City, Taiwan. Firstly, it measured sky glow by sky quality meter (SQM) across the whole metropolitan area by 133 points, and transformed GIS data into light pollution map with Surfer software. Secondly, it combined the light pollution map with local population density and land zoning to analyzing the local-scale sky glow causes. The result showed that high-density commercial areas have more severe light pollution, and the average brightness is 772 times of the natural moonless sky. This research provides an innovative methodology to estimate local-scale sky glow, and helps people recognize how the light pollution is to improve urban nighttime living environment in the future.
Author Information
Yu-Chan Chao, Feng Chia University, Taiwan
Yi-Sheng Lin, Feng Chia University, Taiwan
Paper Information
Conference: ACSEE2015
Stream: Environmental Sustainability and Environmental Management: Land Use and Misuse
This paper is part of the ACSEE2015 Conference Proceedings (View)
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