Lights Out In Brno: City-Wide Experiment Measures Light Pollution

Street lighting in Brno was turned off for several hours in the early hours of Saturday, as an experiment to measure the level of light pollution in the city and provide information for the regulation of Brno’s public lighting system. Photo Credit: BD.

Brno, Apr 12 (BD) – Brno was plunged into darkness for several hours in the early hours of Saturday, the last weekend before the end of the curfew that restricted free movement after 9pm. The aim was to gather information about light pollution, a growing issue in big cities.

For three hours, an aeroplane circled over the city taking aerial photographs. The result will be an orthophoto map of Brno created by TopGis, which will be used to regulate the public lighting system in the city. Lighting experts and astronomers were involved in the experiment to investigate the share of light pollution caused by private sources. The public lights which were turned off were estimated to contribute about one third of such pollution in the city.

“The main problem is the over-illumination and the blue spectrum of light in other light sources than those used by the city company Technické sítě Brno. This overexposure has a negative impact on wildlife and the environment,” said Brno’s Deputy Mayor Petr Hladík (KDU-ČSL).

Brno Daily Subscribe
Sign up for morning news in your mail