RT Journal Article
T1 Better, not more, lighting: Policies in urban areas towards environmentally-sound illumination of historical stone buildings that also halts biological colonization
A1 Méndez Villar, Anxo
A1 Prieto Lamas, Beatriz
A1 Aguirre i Font, Josep M.
A1 Sanmartín Sánchez, Patricia
K1 ALAN pollution
K1 Biodeterioration
K1 Environmental policy for sustainability
K1 Monumental illumination
K1 Smart cities
K1 Stone monuments
AB Anthropogenic or Artificial light at night (ALAN) pollution, or more simply light pollution, is an issue of increasing concern to the general public, as well as to scientists and politicians. However, although advances have been made in terms of scientific knowledge, these advances have not been fully transferred to or considered by politicians. In addition, illumination of stone monuments in urban areas is an emerging contribution to ALAN pollution that has scarcely been considered to date. This paper presents a literature review of the topic of light pollution and related policies, including a bibliometric analysis of studies published between 2020 and 2022. The prevailing legislation in Europe regarding the regulation of outdoor lighting, which emphasises the complexity of controlling light pollution, is summarised and the regulation of monumental lighting in Spain is discussed. Findings concerning the impact of ALAN on biodiversity in urban areas, and the promising biostatic effect of ornamental lighting (halting biological colonization on stone monuments, mainly caused by algae and cyanobacteria) are described. Finally, trends in monument illumination and policymaking towards environmentally sustainable management are considered.
PB Elsevier
SN 0048-9697
YR 2024
FD 2024
LK http://hdl.handle.net/10347/33191
UL http://hdl.handle.net/10347/33191
LA eng
NO Science of The Total Environment Volume 906, 1 January 2024, 167560
NO This review study was developed in the framework of the CROMALUX project: Third SMARTIAGO Challenge – Smart lighting system for Heritage Conservation. A. Méndez acknowledges receipt of a grant in the Programa de Doutoramento Industrial (04_IN606D_2021_2598528) financed by the Xunta de Galicia. P. Sanmartín acknowledges receipt of the Ramón y Cajal contract (RYC2020-029987-I) financed by the Spanish State Research Agency (AEI) of the Ministry of Science and Innovation (MCIN). The authors are also grateful to the Xunta de Galicia for concession of the FONTES project (ED431F 2022/14) and the Competitive Reference Group (GRC) grant ED431C 2022/09.
DS Minerva
RD 24 abr 2026