ROLAN 2022 Conference: Introduction 1
May/June 2022
SECRETARY Brendan Keely FSLL bkeely@cibse.org EDITOR Jill Entwistle jillentwistle@yahoo.com COMMUNICATIONS COMMITTEE: Eliot Horsman MSLL (chair) James Buck Iain Carlile FSLL Jill Entwistle Chris Fordham MSLL Rebecca Hodge Stewart Langdown FSLL Luke Locke-Wheaton Rory Marples MSLL Linda Salamoun MSLL All contributions are the responsibility of the author, and do not necessarily reflect the views of the society. All contributions are personal, except where attributed to an organisation represented by the author.
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oday, there is an awareness of water, air and soil pollution and its impact on the entire biosphere, including humans, flora and fauna. However, artificial lighting as a pollutant has been neglected for a long time and it’s only recently that it has even been considered a potential pollutant. There are several reasons for this. First, the subject is new and multifaceted, and it has not been treated as such with a proper comprehensive approach. Secondly, it takes time to perform research to obtain reliable results, and interdisciplinary research in artificial lighting is still in the early stages of development. Thirdly, there is a lack of communication between the various stakeholders involved – for example, discussions between researchers and the lighting practitioners who design exterior illumination, or researchers and lighting industry partners to develop appropriate lighting products. Also, researchers tend to work in isolated silos, and speak their own language using specialised vocabularies and metrics which are not translated for those who design exterior illumination. Fourthly, there are often conflicting interests. The majority of the lighting industry wants to sell their lighting products; many architects and light artists, supported by many lighting professionals, want to ensure that their buildings and objects or artworks will be visible through the night, and be spectacular; safety groups and researchers concerned with street lighting want to support pedestrian safety at night; environmentalists and light pollution researchers want to protect flora and fauna; astronomers want to make sure they can still observe the night sky; responsible lighting advocates want to protect the nightscape here on Earth for future generations, and want safer, healthier lighting; lastly, clients want to make a profit on investments into various night-time activities. Finally, existing methods for environmental lighting assessments and monitoring do not always work, because they are complex, plus there are no easily available tools to use or they do not exist. Moreover current research knowledge often has
not been translated into soft and hard laws for a proper reduction in light pollution from outdoor illumination to minimise its impact. With the recent climate change emergency and environmental degradation, it is now urgent to apply different than traditional, people-centred development approaches. To protect the future of humanity and planet Earth, and in order to transform our world into a healthier environment, it is clear that a new paradigm shift is also needed for exterior illumination connected to responsible outdoor light at night. The immense challenge for the implementation of this goal will be skilful lighting design based on a solid foundation, so that the negative environmental, public health and wellbeing aspects of outdoor lighting are minimised. In view of the above, the idea of educating lighting professionals by starting a dialogue with artificial light at night (ALAN) experts and by translating scientific research and complex knowledge into easy-to-understand information came to my mind. The concept of the ROLAN 2022 conference, that would include a live panel discussion about the topic of responsible outdoor lighting which connects both research and practice, was born shortly afterwards. I would like to thank all of our international speakers for taking time from their busy schedule and for their immense contribution. I am also very thankful to Dr Ruth Kelly Waskett, president of the Society of Light and Lighting, and Brendan Keely, SLL secretary, who both immediately understood my vision and offered their ongoing support in co-organising this important event for the UK and international lighting community. Lastly, I would like to thank our Founding Partners: the International Dark-Sky Association (IDA), Institute of Lighting Professionals (ILP), International Association of Lighting Designers (IALD), and the Illuminating Engineering Society (IES) for their support in beginning this important paradigm shift together. Asst Prof Dr Karolina M ZielinskaDabkowska, IALD, IES, CIE, MSLL, RIBA, is conference chair of ROLAN 2022. A trained architect, she is a practising lighting designer, researcher and educator. Since 2019, she has also been head of ILLUME, an interdisciplinary research group, part of the EcoTech research centre at Gdańsk Tech, Poland, created to minimise the impact of artificial light pollution. She is engaged in the technical committee work of international organisations such as the CIE, IES and IDA on guidelines for night-time illumination
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