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Article: Night-sky brightness monitoring in Hong Kong A city-wide light pollution assessment

TitleNight-sky brightness monitoring in Hong Kong A city-wide light pollution assessment
Authors
KeywordsAir pollutant concentration
Environmental assessment
Environmental monitoring
Light pollution
Night-sky brightness
Pollution risk
Issue Date2012
PublisherSpringer Verlag Dordrecht. The Journal's web site is located at http://springerlink.metapress.com/openurl.asp?genre=journal&issn=0167-6369
Citation
Environmental Monitoring And Assessment, 2012, v. 184 n. 4, p. 2537-2557 How to Cite?
AbstractResults of the first comprehensive light pollution survey in Hong Kong are presented. The night-sky brightness was measured and monitored around the city using a portable light-sensing device called the Sky QualityMeter over a 15-month period beginning in March 2008. A total of 1,957 data sets were taken at 199 distinct locations, including urban and rural sites covering all 18 Administrative Districts of Hong Kong. The survey shows that the environmental light pollution problem in Hong Kong is severe - the urban night skies (sky brightness at 15.0 mag arcsec -2) are on average ~ 100 times brighter than at the darkest rural sites (20.1 mag arcsec -2), indicating that the high lighting densities in the densely populated residential and commercial areas lead to light pollution. In the worst polluted urban location studied, the night-sky at 13.2 mag arcsec -2 can be over 500 times brighter than the darkest sites in Hong Kong. The observed night-sky brightness is found to be affected by human factors such as land utilization and population density of the observation sites, together with meteorological and/or environmental factors. Moreover, earlier night skies (at 9:30 p.m. local time) are generally brighter than later time (at 11:30 p.m.), which can be attributed to some public and commercial lightings being turned off later at night. On the other hand, no concrete relationship between the observed sky brightness and air pollutant concentrations could be established with the limited survey sampling. Results from this survey will serve as an important database for the public to assess whether new rules and regulations are necessary to control the use of outdoor lightings in Hong Kong. © Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2011.
Persistent Identifierhttp://hdl.handle.net/10722/144925
ISSN
2023 Impact Factor: 2.9
2023 SCImago Journal Rankings: 0.643
ISI Accession Number ID
Funding AgencyGrant Number
Environmental Protection Department of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) Government
Woo Wheelock Green Fund2007-01
Sik Sik Yuen
Funding Information:

We acknowledge support of the Environment and Conservation Fund of the Environmental Protection Department of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) Government, and the Woo Wheelock Green Fund for the project titled A Survey of Light Pollution in Hong Kong (Project No.: 2007-01). Co-organizers of the project include the Hong Kong Space Museum, the Sky Observers' Association (Hong Kong), Ho Koon Nature Education cum Astronomical Centre (Sponsored by Sik Sik Yuen), and The Camping Association of Hong Kong, China, Ltd. We would like to thank all the 171 volunteering participants who have contributed data to our project. The list of organizations can be found at http://nightsky.physics.hku.hk/webcoorg.asp. Data and technical supports from the HKSAR government's Census and Statistics Department, Environmental Protection Department, Lands Department, Planning Department, and Registration and Electoral Office are also acknowledged.

References

 

DC FieldValueLanguage
dc.contributor.authorPun, CSJen_HK
dc.contributor.authorSo, CWen_HK
dc.date.accessioned2012-02-21T05:42:54Z-
dc.date.available2012-02-21T05:42:54Z-
dc.date.issued2012en_HK
dc.identifier.citationEnvironmental Monitoring And Assessment, 2012, v. 184 n. 4, p. 2537-2557en_HK
dc.identifier.issn0167-6369en_HK
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/10722/144925-
dc.description.abstractResults of the first comprehensive light pollution survey in Hong Kong are presented. The night-sky brightness was measured and monitored around the city using a portable light-sensing device called the Sky QualityMeter over a 15-month period beginning in March 2008. A total of 1,957 data sets were taken at 199 distinct locations, including urban and rural sites covering all 18 Administrative Districts of Hong Kong. The survey shows that the environmental light pollution problem in Hong Kong is severe - the urban night skies (sky brightness at 15.0 mag arcsec -2) are on average ~ 100 times brighter than at the darkest rural sites (20.1 mag arcsec -2), indicating that the high lighting densities in the densely populated residential and commercial areas lead to light pollution. In the worst polluted urban location studied, the night-sky at 13.2 mag arcsec -2 can be over 500 times brighter than the darkest sites in Hong Kong. The observed night-sky brightness is found to be affected by human factors such as land utilization and population density of the observation sites, together with meteorological and/or environmental factors. Moreover, earlier night skies (at 9:30 p.m. local time) are generally brighter than later time (at 11:30 p.m.), which can be attributed to some public and commercial lightings being turned off later at night. On the other hand, no concrete relationship between the observed sky brightness and air pollutant concentrations could be established with the limited survey sampling. Results from this survey will serve as an important database for the public to assess whether new rules and regulations are necessary to control the use of outdoor lightings in Hong Kong. © Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2011.en_HK
dc.languageengen_US
dc.publisherSpringer Verlag Dordrecht. The Journal's web site is located at http://springerlink.metapress.com/openurl.asp?genre=journal&issn=0167-6369en_HK
dc.relation.ispartofEnvironmental Monitoring and Assessmenten_HK
dc.rightsThe Author(s)en_US
dc.subjectAir pollutant concentrationen_HK
dc.subjectEnvironmental assessmenten_HK
dc.subjectEnvironmental monitoringen_HK
dc.subjectLight pollutionen_HK
dc.subjectNight-sky brightnessen_HK
dc.subjectPollution risken_HK
dc.titleNight-sky brightness monitoring in Hong Kong A city-wide light pollution assessmenten_HK
dc.typeArticleen_HK
dc.identifier.openurlhttp://library.hku.hk:4551/resserv?sid=springerlink&genre=article&atitle=Night-sky brightness monitoring in Hong Kong&title=Environmental Monitoring and Assessment&issn=01676369&date=2011-06-29& spage=1&authors=Chun Shing Jason Pun, Chu Wing Soen_US
dc.identifier.emailPun, CSJ: jcspun@hkucc.hku.hken_HK
dc.identifier.authorityPun, CSJ=rp00772en_HK
dc.description.naturepublished_or_final_versionen_US
dc.identifier.doi10.1007/s10661-011-2136-1en_HK
dc.identifier.pmid21713499-
dc.identifier.scopuseid_2-s2.0-84862886093en_HK
dc.identifier.hkuros199869-
dc.relation.referenceshttp://www.scopus.com/mlt/select.url?eid=2-s2.0-84862886093&selection=ref&src=s&origin=recordpageen_HK
dc.identifier.volume184en_HK
dc.identifier.issue4en_HK
dc.identifier.spage2537en_HK
dc.identifier.epage2557en_HK
dc.identifier.eissn1573-2959en_US
dc.identifier.isiWOS:000300848100058-
dc.publisher.placeNetherlandsen_HK
dc.description.otherSpringer Open Choice, 21 Feb 2012en_US
dc.identifier.scopusauthoridPun, CSJ=7003931846en_HK
dc.identifier.scopusauthoridSo, CW=41562260800en_HK
dc.identifier.citeulike9481838-
dc.identifier.issnl0167-6369-

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