The Nachtlichter App A citizen science tool for documenting outdoor light sources in public spaces
##plugins.themes.bootstrap3.article.main##
Abstract
The relationship between satellite based measurements of city radiance at night and the numbers and types of physical lights installed on the ground is not well understood. Here we present the “Nachtlichter app”, which was developed to enable citizen scientists to classify and count light sources along street segments over large spatial scales. The project and app were co-designed: citizen scientists played key roles in the app development, testing, and recruitment, as well as in analysis of the data. In addition to describing the app itself and the data format, we provide a general overview of the project, including training materials, data cleaning, and the result of some basic data consistency checks.
##plugins.themes.bootstrap3.article.details##
##plugins.themes.bootstrap3.article.details##
Keywords
citizen-science, lighting inventory, light pollution, Nachtlicht-BüHNE, outdoor lighting
References
Aube, M., & Houle, J.-P. (2022). Building Lighting Device Inventories with the LANcube v2 Open Source Multiangular Radiometer [Preprint]. EARTH SCIENCES. https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints202210.0485.v1
Bará, S., Bao-Varela, C., & Lima, R. C. (2023). Quantitative evaluation of outdoor artificial light emissions using low Earth orbit radiometers. Journal of Quantitative Spectroscopy and Radiative Transfer, 295, 108405. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jqsrt.2022.108405
Bará, S., Rodríguez-Arós, Á., Pérez, M., Tosar, B., Lima, R., Sánchez de Miguel, A., & Zamorano, J. (2018). Estimating the relative contribution of streetlights, vehicles, and residential lighting to the urban night sky brightness. In Lighting Research & Technology (Issue October 2018). SAGE. https://doi.org/10.1177/1477153518808337
Barentine, J. C., Kundracik, F., Kocifaj, M., Sanders, J. C., Esquerdo, G. A., Dalton, A. M., Foott, B., Grauer, A., Tucker, S., & Kyba, C. C. M. (2020). Recovering the city street lighting fraction from skyglow measurements in a large-scale municipal dimming experiment. In Journal of Quantitative Spectroscopy and Radiative Transfer (Vol. 253, p. 107120). Elsevier. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jqsrt.2020.107120
Bettanini, C., Bartolomei, M., Aboudan, A., Colombatti, G., & Olivieri, L. (2022). Flight test of an autonomous payload for measuring sky brightness and ground light pollution using a stratospheric sounding balloon. Acta Astronautica, 191, 11–21. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.actaastro.2021.11.003
Bouroussis, C. A., & Topalis, F. V. (2020). Assessment of outdoor lighting installations and their impact on light pollution using unmanned aircraft systems—The concept of the drone-gonio-photometer. In Journal of Quantitative Spectroscopy and Radiative Transfer (Vol. 253, p. 107155). Elsevier. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jqsrt.2020.107155
EnSikuMaV - Verordnung zur Sicherung der Energieversorgung über kurzfristig wirksame Maßnahmen, Pub. L. No. Kurzfristenergieversorgungssicherungsmaßnahmenverordnung vom 26. August 2022 (BGBl. I S. 1446) (2022). https://www.gesetze-im-internet.de/ensikumav/BJNR144600022.html
Burggraaff, O., Perduijn, A. B., Hek, R. F. van, Schmidt, N., Keller, C. U., & Snik, F. (2020). A universal smartphone add-on for portable spectroscopy and polarimetry: ISPEX 2. Micro- and Nanotechnology Sensors, Systems, and Applications XII, 11389, 84–99. https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2558562
Chalfin, A., Kaplan, J., & LaForest, M. (2022). Street Light Outages, Public Safety and Crime Attraction. Journal of Quantitative Criminology, 38(4), 891–919. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10940-021-09519-4
Cleaver, O. P. (1943). Control of Coastal Lighting in Anti-Submarine Warfare. In Technical Report ADA954894. https://apps.dtic.mil/dtic/tr/fulltext/u2/a954894.pdf
Collins, H. M. (1988). Public Experiments and Displays of Virtuosity: The Core-Set Revisited. Social Studies of Science, 18(4), 725–748. https://doi.org/10.1177/030631288018004006
Dobler, G., Ghandehari, M., Koonin, S. E., Nazari, R., Patrinos, A., Sharma, M. S., Tafvizi, A., Vo, H. T., & Wurtele, J. S. (2015). Dynamics of the urban lightscape. In Information Systems (Vol. 54, pp. 115–126). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.is.2015.06.002
Eitzel, M. V., Cappadonna, J. L., Santos-Lang, C., Duerr, R. E., Virapongse, A., West, S. E., Kyba, C. C. M., Bowser, A., Cooper, C. B., Sforzi, A., Metcalfe, A. N., Harris, E. S., Thiel, M., Haklay, M., Ponciano, L., Roche, J., Ceccaroni, L., Shilling, F. M., Dörler, D., … Jiang, Q. (2017). Citizen Science Terminology Matters: Exploring Key Terms. Citizen Science: Theory and Practice, 2(1), Article 1. https://doi.org/10.5334/cstp.96
Elvidge, C. D., Baugh, K. E., Kihn, E. A., Kroehl, H. W., & Davis, E. R. (1997). Mapping city lights with night-time data from the DMSP operational linescan system. In Photogrammetric Engineering and Remote Sensing (Vol. 63, Issue 6, pp. 727–734). American Society for Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing.
Elvidge, C. D., Zhizhin, M., Ghosh, T., Hsu, F.-C., & Taneja, J. (2021). Annual Time Series of Global VIIRS Nighttime Lights Derived from Monthly Averages: 2012 to 2019. Remote Sensing, 13(5), Article 5. https://doi.org/10.3390/rs13050922
Falchi, F., Furgoni, R., Gallaway, T. A., Rybnikova, N. A., Portnov, B. A., Baugh, K., Cinzano, P., & Elvidge, C. D. (2019). Light pollution in USA and Europe: The good, the bad and the ugly. In Journal of Environmental Management (Vol. 248, p. 109227). Elsevier. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvman.2019.06.128
GFZ. (2021). We count lights because the night counts. https://www.gfz-potsdam.de/en/press/news/details/we-count-lights-because-the-night-counts
Hale, J. D., Davies, G., Fairbrass, A. J., Matthews, T. J., Rogers, C. D. F., & Sadler, J. P. (2013). Mapping lightscapes: Spatial patterning of artificial lighting in an urban landscape. In PloS one (Vol. 8, Issue 5, p. e61460). https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0061460
Hänel, A., & Kunzemann, T. (2021). The fraction and change of public lighting in Preussisch-Oldendorf, Germany. ALAN 2021 Conference Abstract Booklet.
Hiscocks, P. D., & Gudmundsson, S. (2010). The Contribution of Street Lighting to Light Pollution. In Journal of the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada (Vol. 104, Issue 5, p. 190).
Kuechly, H. U., Kyba, C. C. M., Ruhtz, T., Lindemann, C., Wolter, C., Fischer, J., & Hölker, F. (2012). Aerial survey and spatial analysis of sources of light pollution in Berlin, Germany. In Remote Sensing of Environment (Vol. 126, pp. 39–50). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rse.2012.08.008
Kyba, C. C. M. ., Garz, S., Kuechly, H., de Miguel, A., Zamorano, J., Fischer, J., & Hölker, F. (2015). High-Resolution Imagery of Earth at Night: New Sources, Opportunities and Challenges. In Remote Sensing (Vol. 7, Issue 1, pp. 1–23). https://doi.org/10.3390/rs70100001
Kyba, C. C. M., Kuester, T., Sánchez de Miguel, A., Baugh, K., Jechow, A., Hölker, F., Bennie, J., Elvidge, C., Gaston, K., & Guanter, L. (2017). Artificially lit surface of Earth at night increasing in radiance and extent. Science Advances, 3(11), e1701528. https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.1701528
Kyba, C. C. M., Ruby, A., Kuechly, H. U., Kinzey, B., Miller, N., Sanders, J., Barentine, J., Kleinodt, R., & Espey, B. (2021). Direct measurement of the contribution of street lighting to satellite observations of nighttime light emissions from urban areas. Lighting Research & Technology, 53(3), 189–211. https://doi.org/10.1177/1477153520958463
Li, X., Levin, N., Xie, J., & Li, D. (2020). Monitoring hourly night-time light by an unmanned aerial vehicle and its implications to satellite remote sensing. In Remote Sensing of Environment (Vol. 247, p. in press). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rse.2020.111942
Li, X., Zhao, L., Li, D., & Xu, H. (2018). Mapping Urban Extent Using Luojia 1-01 Nighttime Light Imagery. In Sensors (Basel, Switzerland) (Vol. 18, Issue 11). https://doi.org/10.3390/s18113665
Luginbuhl, C. B., Duriscoe, D. M., Moore, C. W., Richman, A., Lockwood, G. W., & Davis, D. R. (2009). From the Ground Up II: Sky Glow and Near-Ground Artificial Light Propagation in Flagstaff, Arizona. In Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific (Vol. 121, Issue 876, pp. 204–212). https://doi.org/10.1086/597626
Miller, S., Straka, W., Mills, S., Elvidge, C., Lee, T., Solbrig, J., Walther, A., Heidinger, A., & Weiss, S. (2013). Illuminating the Capabilities of the Suomi National Polar-Orbiting Partnership (NPP) Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) Day/Night Band. In Remote Sensing (Vol. 5, Issue 12, pp. 6717–6766). https://doi.org/10.3390/rs5126717
Muñoz-Gil, G., Dauphin, A., Beduini, F. A., & Sánchez de Miguel, A. (2022). Citizen Science to Assess Light Pollution with Mobile Phones. Remote Sensing, 14(19), Article 19. https://doi.org/10.3390/rs14194976
Nachtlicht-BüHNE. (2023). Nachtlicht-BüHNE project website. Nachtlicht-BüHNE. https://nachtlicht-buehne.de/
Ruhtz, T., Kyba, C. C. M., Posch, T., Puschnig, J., & Kuechly, H. (2015). Lichtmesskampagne Zentralraum Oberösterreich [Aircraft data acquisition report]. https://www.land-oberoesterreich.gv.at/Mediendateien/Formulare/Dokumente%20UWD%20Abt_US/us_strahlen_Endbericht_Lichtkataster_20151126_Linz_Final.pdf
Sánchez de Miguel, A., Bennie, J., Rosenfeld, E., Dzurjak, S., & Gaston, K. J. (2021). First Estimation of Global Trends in Nocturnal Power Emissions Reveals Acceleration of Light Pollution. Remote Sensing, 13(16), Article 16. https://doi.org/10.3390/rs13163311
Sánchez de Miguel, A., Zamorano, J., Aubé, M., Bennie, J., Gallego, J., Ocaña, F., Pettit, D. R., Stefanov, W. L., & Gaston, K. J. (2021). Colour remote sensing of the impact of artificial light at night (II): Calibration of DSLR-based images from the International Space Station. Remote Sensing of Environment, 112611. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rse.2021.112611
Stare, J., & Kyba, C. (2019). Radiance Light Trends (p. 5 Files) [Application/octet-stream,application/octet-stream,application/octet-stream,application/octet-stream,application/octet-stream]. GFZ Data Services. https://doi.org/10.5880/GFZ.1.4.2019.001
Sullivan, W. T. (1989). A 10 km resolution image of the entire night-time Earth based on cloud-free satellite photographs in the 400–1100 nm band. International Journal of Remote Sensing, 10(1), 1–5. https://doi.org/10.1080/01431168908903843
Wuchterl, G., & Reithofer, M. (2017). Licht über Wien V. http://kuffner-sternwarte.at/2018/Studie_Lichtverschmutzung_Wien_2011-2017.pdf
Zschorn, M., & Mattern, J. (2022, June). Counting lights for Sustainability – Insights from the Citizen Science Project Nachtlicht-BüHNE. Proceedings of Science. Austrian Citizen Science Conference 2022. https://pos.sissa.it/407/003/pdf
Bará, S., Bao-Varela, C., & Lima, R. C. (2023). Quantitative evaluation of outdoor artificial light emissions using low Earth orbit radiometers. Journal of Quantitative Spectroscopy and Radiative Transfer, 295, 108405. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jqsrt.2022.108405
Bará, S., Rodríguez-Arós, Á., Pérez, M., Tosar, B., Lima, R., Sánchez de Miguel, A., & Zamorano, J. (2018). Estimating the relative contribution of streetlights, vehicles, and residential lighting to the urban night sky brightness. In Lighting Research & Technology (Issue October 2018). SAGE. https://doi.org/10.1177/1477153518808337
Barentine, J. C., Kundracik, F., Kocifaj, M., Sanders, J. C., Esquerdo, G. A., Dalton, A. M., Foott, B., Grauer, A., Tucker, S., & Kyba, C. C. M. (2020). Recovering the city street lighting fraction from skyglow measurements in a large-scale municipal dimming experiment. In Journal of Quantitative Spectroscopy and Radiative Transfer (Vol. 253, p. 107120). Elsevier. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jqsrt.2020.107120
Bettanini, C., Bartolomei, M., Aboudan, A., Colombatti, G., & Olivieri, L. (2022). Flight test of an autonomous payload for measuring sky brightness and ground light pollution using a stratospheric sounding balloon. Acta Astronautica, 191, 11–21. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.actaastro.2021.11.003
Bouroussis, C. A., & Topalis, F. V. (2020). Assessment of outdoor lighting installations and their impact on light pollution using unmanned aircraft systems—The concept of the drone-gonio-photometer. In Journal of Quantitative Spectroscopy and Radiative Transfer (Vol. 253, p. 107155). Elsevier. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jqsrt.2020.107155
EnSikuMaV - Verordnung zur Sicherung der Energieversorgung über kurzfristig wirksame Maßnahmen, Pub. L. No. Kurzfristenergieversorgungssicherungsmaßnahmenverordnung vom 26. August 2022 (BGBl. I S. 1446) (2022). https://www.gesetze-im-internet.de/ensikumav/BJNR144600022.html
Burggraaff, O., Perduijn, A. B., Hek, R. F. van, Schmidt, N., Keller, C. U., & Snik, F. (2020). A universal smartphone add-on for portable spectroscopy and polarimetry: ISPEX 2. Micro- and Nanotechnology Sensors, Systems, and Applications XII, 11389, 84–99. https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2558562
Chalfin, A., Kaplan, J., & LaForest, M. (2022). Street Light Outages, Public Safety and Crime Attraction. Journal of Quantitative Criminology, 38(4), 891–919. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10940-021-09519-4
Cleaver, O. P. (1943). Control of Coastal Lighting in Anti-Submarine Warfare. In Technical Report ADA954894. https://apps.dtic.mil/dtic/tr/fulltext/u2/a954894.pdf
Collins, H. M. (1988). Public Experiments and Displays of Virtuosity: The Core-Set Revisited. Social Studies of Science, 18(4), 725–748. https://doi.org/10.1177/030631288018004006
Dobler, G., Ghandehari, M., Koonin, S. E., Nazari, R., Patrinos, A., Sharma, M. S., Tafvizi, A., Vo, H. T., & Wurtele, J. S. (2015). Dynamics of the urban lightscape. In Information Systems (Vol. 54, pp. 115–126). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.is.2015.06.002
Eitzel, M. V., Cappadonna, J. L., Santos-Lang, C., Duerr, R. E., Virapongse, A., West, S. E., Kyba, C. C. M., Bowser, A., Cooper, C. B., Sforzi, A., Metcalfe, A. N., Harris, E. S., Thiel, M., Haklay, M., Ponciano, L., Roche, J., Ceccaroni, L., Shilling, F. M., Dörler, D., … Jiang, Q. (2017). Citizen Science Terminology Matters: Exploring Key Terms. Citizen Science: Theory and Practice, 2(1), Article 1. https://doi.org/10.5334/cstp.96
Elvidge, C. D., Baugh, K. E., Kihn, E. A., Kroehl, H. W., & Davis, E. R. (1997). Mapping city lights with night-time data from the DMSP operational linescan system. In Photogrammetric Engineering and Remote Sensing (Vol. 63, Issue 6, pp. 727–734). American Society for Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing.
Elvidge, C. D., Zhizhin, M., Ghosh, T., Hsu, F.-C., & Taneja, J. (2021). Annual Time Series of Global VIIRS Nighttime Lights Derived from Monthly Averages: 2012 to 2019. Remote Sensing, 13(5), Article 5. https://doi.org/10.3390/rs13050922
Falchi, F., Furgoni, R., Gallaway, T. A., Rybnikova, N. A., Portnov, B. A., Baugh, K., Cinzano, P., & Elvidge, C. D. (2019). Light pollution in USA and Europe: The good, the bad and the ugly. In Journal of Environmental Management (Vol. 248, p. 109227). Elsevier. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvman.2019.06.128
GFZ. (2021). We count lights because the night counts. https://www.gfz-potsdam.de/en/press/news/details/we-count-lights-because-the-night-counts
Hale, J. D., Davies, G., Fairbrass, A. J., Matthews, T. J., Rogers, C. D. F., & Sadler, J. P. (2013). Mapping lightscapes: Spatial patterning of artificial lighting in an urban landscape. In PloS one (Vol. 8, Issue 5, p. e61460). https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0061460
Hänel, A., & Kunzemann, T. (2021). The fraction and change of public lighting in Preussisch-Oldendorf, Germany. ALAN 2021 Conference Abstract Booklet.
Hiscocks, P. D., & Gudmundsson, S. (2010). The Contribution of Street Lighting to Light Pollution. In Journal of the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada (Vol. 104, Issue 5, p. 190).
Kuechly, H. U., Kyba, C. C. M., Ruhtz, T., Lindemann, C., Wolter, C., Fischer, J., & Hölker, F. (2012). Aerial survey and spatial analysis of sources of light pollution in Berlin, Germany. In Remote Sensing of Environment (Vol. 126, pp. 39–50). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rse.2012.08.008
Kyba, C. C. M. ., Garz, S., Kuechly, H., de Miguel, A., Zamorano, J., Fischer, J., & Hölker, F. (2015). High-Resolution Imagery of Earth at Night: New Sources, Opportunities and Challenges. In Remote Sensing (Vol. 7, Issue 1, pp. 1–23). https://doi.org/10.3390/rs70100001
Kyba, C. C. M., Kuester, T., Sánchez de Miguel, A., Baugh, K., Jechow, A., Hölker, F., Bennie, J., Elvidge, C., Gaston, K., & Guanter, L. (2017). Artificially lit surface of Earth at night increasing in radiance and extent. Science Advances, 3(11), e1701528. https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.1701528
Kyba, C. C. M., Ruby, A., Kuechly, H. U., Kinzey, B., Miller, N., Sanders, J., Barentine, J., Kleinodt, R., & Espey, B. (2021). Direct measurement of the contribution of street lighting to satellite observations of nighttime light emissions from urban areas. Lighting Research & Technology, 53(3), 189–211. https://doi.org/10.1177/1477153520958463
Li, X., Levin, N., Xie, J., & Li, D. (2020). Monitoring hourly night-time light by an unmanned aerial vehicle and its implications to satellite remote sensing. In Remote Sensing of Environment (Vol. 247, p. in press). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rse.2020.111942
Li, X., Zhao, L., Li, D., & Xu, H. (2018). Mapping Urban Extent Using Luojia 1-01 Nighttime Light Imagery. In Sensors (Basel, Switzerland) (Vol. 18, Issue 11). https://doi.org/10.3390/s18113665
Luginbuhl, C. B., Duriscoe, D. M., Moore, C. W., Richman, A., Lockwood, G. W., & Davis, D. R. (2009). From the Ground Up II: Sky Glow and Near-Ground Artificial Light Propagation in Flagstaff, Arizona. In Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific (Vol. 121, Issue 876, pp. 204–212). https://doi.org/10.1086/597626
Miller, S., Straka, W., Mills, S., Elvidge, C., Lee, T., Solbrig, J., Walther, A., Heidinger, A., & Weiss, S. (2013). Illuminating the Capabilities of the Suomi National Polar-Orbiting Partnership (NPP) Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) Day/Night Band. In Remote Sensing (Vol. 5, Issue 12, pp. 6717–6766). https://doi.org/10.3390/rs5126717
Muñoz-Gil, G., Dauphin, A., Beduini, F. A., & Sánchez de Miguel, A. (2022). Citizen Science to Assess Light Pollution with Mobile Phones. Remote Sensing, 14(19), Article 19. https://doi.org/10.3390/rs14194976
Nachtlicht-BüHNE. (2023). Nachtlicht-BüHNE project website. Nachtlicht-BüHNE. https://nachtlicht-buehne.de/
Ruhtz, T., Kyba, C. C. M., Posch, T., Puschnig, J., & Kuechly, H. (2015). Lichtmesskampagne Zentralraum Oberösterreich [Aircraft data acquisition report]. https://www.land-oberoesterreich.gv.at/Mediendateien/Formulare/Dokumente%20UWD%20Abt_US/us_strahlen_Endbericht_Lichtkataster_20151126_Linz_Final.pdf
Sánchez de Miguel, A., Bennie, J., Rosenfeld, E., Dzurjak, S., & Gaston, K. J. (2021). First Estimation of Global Trends in Nocturnal Power Emissions Reveals Acceleration of Light Pollution. Remote Sensing, 13(16), Article 16. https://doi.org/10.3390/rs13163311
Sánchez de Miguel, A., Zamorano, J., Aubé, M., Bennie, J., Gallego, J., Ocaña, F., Pettit, D. R., Stefanov, W. L., & Gaston, K. J. (2021). Colour remote sensing of the impact of artificial light at night (II): Calibration of DSLR-based images from the International Space Station. Remote Sensing of Environment, 112611. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rse.2021.112611
Stare, J., & Kyba, C. (2019). Radiance Light Trends (p. 5 Files) [Application/octet-stream,application/octet-stream,application/octet-stream,application/octet-stream,application/octet-stream]. GFZ Data Services. https://doi.org/10.5880/GFZ.1.4.2019.001
Sullivan, W. T. (1989). A 10 km resolution image of the entire night-time Earth based on cloud-free satellite photographs in the 400–1100 nm band. International Journal of Remote Sensing, 10(1), 1–5. https://doi.org/10.1080/01431168908903843
Wuchterl, G., & Reithofer, M. (2017). Licht über Wien V. http://kuffner-sternwarte.at/2018/Studie_Lichtverschmutzung_Wien_2011-2017.pdf
Zschorn, M., & Mattern, J. (2022, June). Counting lights for Sustainability – Insights from the Citizen Science Project Nachtlicht-BüHNE. Proceedings of Science. Austrian Citizen Science Conference 2022. https://pos.sissa.it/407/003/pdf
Issue
Section
Articles
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
All International Journal of Sustainable Lighting (IJSL) content is Open Access, meaning it is accessible online without fee under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0). For any reuse, redistribution, or reproduction of a work, users must clarify the license terms under which the work was produced. Neither the text itself nor the ideas presented in it may be used for commercial purposes.
