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A Collective Awareness Platform for Promoting Dark Skies in Europe

Fact Sheet

Result in Brief

Reporting

Results

Objective

WHY: 2015 has been named by the United Nations as the International Year of Light (light2015.org). Light has had many obvious benefits for human mankind, but it also poses some relevant threats: the everyday-increasing excess of light thrown by humans to the sky seriously threatens to remove forever one of humanity’s natural wonders, the view of our universe. More importantly, it has also an adverse impact on our environment and economy (energy wasted to the sky costs 2 billion US$ per year in the USA and 6,3 billion € per year in Europe) and on the health of hundreds of species, including pathologies in human beings (e.g., stress, insomnia). Many professional and amateur scientists are already fighting against light pollution. However, it is necessary to increase social awareness about the importance of preserving the darkness of our cities and environment.

WHAT: STARS4ALL will create an Light Pollution Initiative (LPI) incubation platform that will allow generating (and maintaining) customizable on-demand domain-focused LPIs (e.g., a light pollution working group in Brussels). The platform will be self-sustainable: it will integrate a crowdfunding tool to obtain funding for the LPIs; it will consider incentives that motivate citizens to participate in LPIs, as well as policies to handle those incentives; and it will provide innovations in data acquisition from sensors deployed by citizens and in games with a purpose.

HOW: STARS4ALL will initially deploy 10 LPIs, which will be available by the end of the 1st semester of project execution, and will be operating and creating collective awareness during the rest of the project. At that moment we pave the way the creation of other LPIs by citizens, specially in other disciplines such as Energy Saving, Biodiversity, and Human Health, and will organize open competitions among them.

Programme(s)

H2020-EU.2.1.1. - INDUSTRIAL LEADERSHIP - Leadership in enabling and industrial technologies - Information and Communication Technologies (ICT)

Topic(s)

ICT-10-2015 - Collective Awareness Platforms for Sustainability and Social Innovation

Call for proposal

H2020-ICT-2015

See other projects for this call

Funding Scheme

RIA - Research and Innovation action

Leaflet | Map data © OpenStreetMap contributors, Credit: EC-GISCO, © EuroGeographics for the administrative boundaries

Coordinator

UNIVERSIDAD POLITECNICA DE MADRID

Address

Calle Ramiro De Maeztu 7 Edificio Rectorado
28040 Madrid

Spain

Activity type

Higher or Secondary Education Establishments

EU Contribution

€ 568 130

Website

Contact the organisation

Participants (8)

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CEFRIEL SOCIETA CONSORTILE A RESPONSABILITA LIMITATA

Italy

EU Contribution

€ 236 250

UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHAMPTON

United Kingdom

EU Contribution

€ 236 250

EUROPEAN CROWDFUNDING NETWORK

Belgium

EU Contribution

€ 78 750

CHAMBRE DE COMMERCE ET D'INDUSTRIE DE REGION PARIS ILE-DE-FRANCE

France

EU Contribution

€ 60 724,50

INSTITUTO DE ASTROFISICA DE CANARIAS

Spain

EU Contribution

€ 173 260

FORSCHUNGSVERBUND BERLIN EV

Germany

EU Contribution

€ 240 000

UNIVERSIDAD COMPLUTENSE DE MADRID

Spain

EU Contribution

€ 248 750

ASOCIACION ESCP EUROPE, ESPANA

Spain

EU Contribution

€ 128 025,50

Project information

STARS4ALL

Grant agreement ID: 688135

Project website

Status

Closed project

Start date

1 January 2016
End date

31 December 2018

Funded under:

H2020-EU.2.1.1.

Overall budget:

€ 1 970 140
EU contribution

€ 1 970 140

Coordinated by:

UNIVERSIDAD POLITECNICA DE MADRID

Spain

DE EN ES FR IT PL

Shedding light on our need for dark skies

Millions of twinkling lights create a magical canopy over our heads every night, but light pollution makes it difficult if not impossible for most of us to witness it. EU-funded researchers are fostering grassroots projects around the world to raise awareness and create policy change.

SOCIETY

DIGITAL ECONOMY

More than 80 % of the world’s population lives under light-polluted skies. The Milky Way is hidden from more than one third of humanity. The EU-funded STARS4ALL project set out to put light pollution in the spotlight, raising public awareness and participation with an end goal of shaping new policies. Incubating grassroots light pollution initiatives (LPIs) Other than turning off lights when they are not needed to save electricity, public dialogue regarding light pollution is minimal. As a result, many policies, particularly regarding public lighting, are taking us in the wrong direction. The impacts of light pollution on biodiversity, human health, astronomy, and more will increase in the absence of dedicated campaigns to raise awareness and foster a sense of responsibility. In response to this pressing need, as project coordinator Prof. Oscar Corcho explains, “STARS4ALL has worked on providing the technology and expertise required to incubate local and global LPIs around the world.” In addition to technology, STARS4ALL has provided help for crowdfunding and is providing visibility to small initiatives. The project has grown from 10 LPIs initially to more than 30 active initiatives, far exceeding expectations. STARS4ALL is supporting LPIs in Africa, Australia, Europe, Latin America, New Zealand, and the United States. Some initiatives were already operational. For example, CitiesAtNight monitors global light pollution with images taken by astronauts aboard the International Space Station. Analysis of the images by citizen scientists is providing information above and beyond what is currently available from satellite instruments, particularly regarding changes in the wavelengths or colour of light in our cities. The newly created photometer network LPI has been an amazing success story. Beginning with approximately 100 photometers deployed around the world, the team is now selling the photometers it developed to interested citizens, businesses, and other organisations measuring the quality of their dark nights and sharing data through the STARS4ALL photometer portal. Orders have exceeded expectations and the revenue is sustaining the activities of the consortium for additional light-pollution research and initiatives. In addition to incubating LPIs, STARS4ALL is supporting policy change. Scientists submitted a petition to the European Parliament supporting the need for a European policy regarding light pollution. On a smaller scale, one initiative succeeded in getting the topic in the discussion during recent regional elections in Madrid. Lighting the way STARS4ALL has established the STARS4ALL foundation, now internationally recognised among light pollution researchers. According to Corcho, the non-profit is focused on “ensuring that some of the most relevant results obtained in STARS4ALL (hardware and ICT development, as well as open data production and acquisition) can have a clear sustainability plan for the future.” The STARS4ALL foundation has signed a collaborative agreement with the STARLIGHT foundation, focused on astronomy and the certification of dark sky parks, providing a unified voice for light pollution researchers in dialogues with public authorities. The future is bright for getting light pollution in the public eye along with chemical and physical contamination of earth, seas, and the atmosphere.

Keywords

STARS4ALL, light, pollution, light pollution, photometer, light pollution initiatives (LPIs), policy, policies, astronomy, lighting, data, grassroots

Project information

STARS4ALL

Grant agreement ID: 688135

Project website

Status

Closed project

Start date

1 January 2016
End date

31 December 2018

Funded under:

H2020-EU.2.1.1.

Overall budget:

€ 1 970 140
EU contribution

€ 1 970 140

Coordinated by:

UNIVERSIDAD POLITECNICA DE MADRID

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Periodic Reporting for period 1 - STARS4ALL (A Collective Awareness Platform for Promoting Dark Skies in Europe)

Reporting period: 2016-01-01 to 2017-06-30

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

Artificial light at night (ALAN) is associated with a sense of security, wealth and modernity. Hence, artificial light has become an irreplaceable aid for human activities after the onset of darkness. As a consequence, the illumination of the nightscape has increased in its intensity, time and space. There is a growing community concerned about this increasing illumination of natural nightscapes, because of escalating negative effects on biodiversity, nightlife habitats, visibility of stars and astronomical phenomena as well as on human wellbeing. Measures to reduce the negative impacts of outdoor lighting are easy of obtain, but need the awareness and activism of the community. Raising awareness of the impacts and providing simple measures to reduce them, will not only benefit nature and the general public, but also help to save energy and taxpayer money.

STARS4ALL ambition is to involve as many community actors as possible in the fight against light pollution. For that purpose, STARS4ALL has deployed an online platform (http://www.stars4all.eu) to provide citizens, scientists and a wide range of stakeholders with the tools and support required to incubate and create local or global working groups (Light Pollution Initiatives - LPIs), with different domain-specific purposes (e.g. preserving clean skies for Astronomy, reducing Energy consumption, ensuring Biodiversity, improving Human Health).

Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far

Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far)

Photometers Network

Web component to visualize the magnitude value measured by a photometer

Light Pollution effects (credit: Reiner Stock)

NIghtknights Game

STARS4ALL Logo

LPI ecosystem

Project information

STARS4ALL

Grant agreement ID: 688135

Project website

Status

Closed project

Start date

1 January 2016
End date

31 December 2018

Funded under:

H2020-EU.2.1.1.

Overall budget:

€ 1 970 140
EU contribution

€ 1 970 140

Coordinated by:

UNIVERSIDAD POLITECNICA DE MADRID

Project information

STARS4ALL

Grant agreement ID: 688135

Project website

Status

Closed project

Start date

1 January 2016
End date

31 December 2018

Funded under:

H2020-EU.2.1.1.

Overall budget:

€ 1 970 140
EU contribution

€ 1 970 140

Coordinated by:

UNIVERSIDAD POLITECNICA DE MADRID

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Last update: 19 July 2017

Record number: 199856

CORDIS

Objective

Coordinator

Participants (8)

Project information

Shedding light on our need for dark skies

Keywords

Project information

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Periodic Reporting for period 1 - STARS4ALL (A Collective Awareness Platform for Promoting Dark Skies in Europe)

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CORDIS

Objective

Coordinator

Participants (8)

Project information

Shedding light on our need for dark skies

Keywords

Project information

Discover other articles in the same domain of application

Periodic Reporting for period 1 - STARS4ALL (A Collective Awareness Platform for Promoting Dark Skies in Europe)

Project information

Deliverables

Publications

Datasets

Project information

Project information

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