As a spin-off of the March 13 workshop at the Osservatorio Ximeniano in Florence, Elena Maggi received and invitation to present the activities by the University of Pisa in the context of the interdisciplinary protection and promotion of the night sky work which is happening with the BuioMetria Partecipativa project and with the National Research Council in Florence (Institute of Biometeorology).
The event is part of the Lab Boat project, and you can register to attend on this page.
For you information, the image used for the event is by Federico Giussani, our main nightscape photographer. It was shot in a site called “Le Rocchette” close to Castiglione della Pescaia (Southern Tuscany) a couple of years ago. The guy you see contemplating the sky is in fact Federico.
Yesterday we were notified that the May 16 conference which with the BuioMetria Partecipativa project we are organizing at the University of Brescia has been recognized as a valid event to issue training credits for Chartered Architects and engineers.
This news adds more value and interest to the event we are preparing. The full presentation of the conference is available on this page.
For more information: bmp@pibinko.org or +393317539228
Following the event in Tatti (Southern Tuscany), and the presentation of the first verison of the community map of its surroundings, and in the context of a rich program of events through June (pending further updates), you are invited in Scansano, Southern Tuscany for an afternoon with the pibinko.org network.
The event will have a focus on the BuioMetria Partecipativa project and its interdisciplinary approach to promotion and protection of the night sky, but also the other typical elements of the pibinko.org “gigs” will be available.
On May 16, 2019 in Brescia, Italy, there will be a conference concerning the interdisciplinary protection and promotion of night sky, elaborating on state of the art, action items, and visions.
The conference will take place during the International Light Day celebrated by UNESCO, and has been accepted by the Charter of Architects and the Charter of Engineers in Brescia as valid for the issue of training credits.
10.15 AM – Opening speech by Roberto Ranzi, Rector’s Delegate for International Affairs
10.30 AM – Andrea Giacomelli, pibinko.org network and BuioMetria Partecipativa coordinator: Connecting cities and rural areas to redefine the perception of light at night.
11.30 AM – Maria d’Amore, Light pollution and energy saving. The experience by Regione Emilia-Romagna.
12.30 PM Discussion
1PM Lunch break
2.30 PM Federico Giussani, Photgrapher, “When the shot is hot: emotion and analytics in night photography“
3.30 PM Operational proposals, options for collaboration, and discussion
4.30 PM Conclusion
The conference will be chaired by Olivia Long from the University of Brescia.
In addition to the program presented in the flyer, from 6PM to 8PM we are considering an outreach event (venue to be confirmed).
Conference topics
• Overview of the protection and promotion of night skies (light pollution causes, effects, and mitigation strategies);
• Current regulatory framework, and options for improvement deriving from the research sector;
Experiences in the creation of value in from night skies (star parks, astro-tourism and other activities at night).
• Interdisciplinary initiatives, participatory methods, and citizen science for light planning, deriving from Italian and international experiences;
• Interaction with the conference participant, and wrap-up session;
• Sharing of operational proposals for 2019-2020, including the possibility of triggering collaborations with the participants.
Last October I received an e-mail from Carlo Nardi, MS in Environmental Sciences and chartered environmental guide from Treia, Central Italy. Carlo was one of our early days BuioMetria participants, using one of the sensors from our instrument pool for a few months. Then, in 2015, ho contacted us to ask if he could conduct a new round of measurements. On that occasion, we also had a meeting to discuss an actual, albeit informal, work plan.
Between 2015 and 2017 Carlo took several measurements of night sky quality, conducted a study on night sky brightness in his area, and documented his work with presentations in national and international conferences.
Based on this track record, certified by pibinko.org, the Italian Association of Environmental Guides (AIGAE) acknowledge six educational credits out of ten which he is supposed to collect each year as a part of his training program:
Given this outcome: if there are environmental guides who are interested to collaborate with BuioMetria Partecipativa and the pibinko.org network please contact us at: bmp@pibinko.org
On March 13, 2019, in the stunning set of the Osservatorio Ximeniano in Florence (the first astronomical observatory in the city, founded in 1756), a workshop was organized by the Institute of Biometeorology of the National Research Council, the Department of Biology from the University of Pisa, and the BuioMetria Partecipativa project from the pibinko.org network. The topic of the workshop was the definition of common operational perspectives on protection and promotion of night skies, following the international symposium held on the island of Capraia (Tuscany) in September, 2018 (a report on the symposium is available).
The workshop was primarily intended as a follow-up for attendees of the Capraia event, together with other subjects collaborating with the organizers, in order to further consolidate a national interdisciplinary working group active in monitoring, outreach and promotion of dark-sky areas. In addition to direct collaborators of the organizing institutions, the event saw the participation of Regional Enviromental Protection Agencies from Veneto, Piemonte, Emilia Romagna, and Liguria, plus other experts from Regione Emilia-Romagna.
Each participant had the possibility of giving a presentation in the first part of the workshop. Key talks were proposed by:
Andrea Giacomelli, MS in Environmental Engineering and PhD, animating since 2008 BuioMetria Partecipativa as the flagship project in a framework of various initiatives for protection and promotion of lesser known resources in the fields of culture, environment, and open innovation (supported by the pibinko.org network):
Luciano Massetti, MS in electronic engineering and senior technologist at CNR IBIMET, with a strong track record in environmental monitoring and education, active since 2014 on activities concerning artificial light at night:
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Andrea Bertolo, MS in Physics, managing the light pollution section of the Veneto Regional Environmental Protection Agency, presenting their regional network for night sky quality measurements, used both for monitoring and scientific research.
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Elena Maggi, MS in Biology, researcher with the Dept. of Biology at the University of Pisa, active since 2015 on projects concerning the effects of artificial light at night on marine micro-organisms.
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Luca Delucchi, MS in Geography, and author of the BuioMetria Partecipativa web map in 2008, since then a researcher at the Edmund Mach Foundation in Trento, specialized in geographic information systems and remote sensing.
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The afternoon part of the workshop was dedicated to brainstorming and outlining key activies. During the coming few weeks the working group, in collaboration with some subject who could not physically be in Florence, but expressed their interest in participating in this effort, will proceed to define a set of joint actions on the topic of promotion and protection of the night sky.
The working group at the end of their day at the Osservatorio Ximeniano, not counting a couple of participants who needed to leave earlier (and Federico Giussani, the author of the shots in this report, also specialized in nightscape photography).
We thank Fondazione Osservatorio Ximeniano for hosting the workshop (and you can check out some indoor details of the anciente observatory dome from the image above).
Real-time visual effect with a quasi-full moon and different types of luminaires. If every picture tells a story, every video tells a series…this is part of our BuioMetria Partecipativa light and darkness services.
CORDILIT stands for “Coordinamento Raccolta Dati Inquinamento Luminoso in Italia”, i.e. Italian coordination body for the collection of light pollution data. This was started in March 2011 by the BuioMetria Partecipativa project and the Veneto Stellato association to integrate SQM data collected by different stations [TO BE COMPLETED].
In the context of the European collaborations that we manage via the BuioMetria Partecipativa project, in 2017 we started to follow a working group concerning the update of the Green Public Procurement guidelines for road lighting and traffic signals.
This group is coordinated by the Joint Research Centre (from its Sevilla, Spain, facility), and in the past 18 months is saw the active presence of several of the light pollution experts we know, together with experts from other domains.
Two days ago through the working group’s mailing list we had news that the results of the activity are available. Please see below the announcement. For more information: bmp@pibinko.org
We are delighted to announce that the EU Green Public Procurement (GPP) criteria for road lighting and traffic signals have been published.
Although lighting systems in general are great examples of potential win-win scenarios for the environment and public budgets, the setting of appropriately ambitious criteria for energy efficiency and durability has been a particular challenge due to the rapidly evolving nature of LED technology. Thanks to detailed input from some of you, including an in-depth analysis of the LightingFacts database using data from the last 6-7 years, it has been possible to present a tiered approach to minimum luminaire efficacy requirements in EU GPP criteria for the next 6 years.
A novel and ambitious approach towards tackling the issue of light pollution has been taken, with requirements on both upward light output ratios and blue light emission being set. The emission of blue light is a particular concern with some LED lighting products and we are pleased to be able to promote a specially tailored metric for blue light (the G-index) which is much more precise and reliable than the commonly used CCT metric. We must say that this was only possible thanks to the previous work of a dedicated group of stakeholders on this particular matter, so a special thanks to those of you involved in the light pollution criteria.
We also have tried to emphasise the importance of durability aspects with LED lighting and to try to shed light (pun intended) on the general misconception that all LED lighting products have excellent durability. There are different quality specifications for different LED chips and durability depends a lot on the quality of the electrical components and appropriate luminaire design, not just on the lamp itself. In line with circular economy principles we are promoting more durable and recyclable products that are correctly labelled to aid in their future replacement, upgrading or disposal.
An excerpt from the presentation of the new criteria, highlighting the combined benefits of LED dimming.
