Planning Artificial Light at Night for Pedestrian Visual Diversity in Public Spaces

Antonella Radicchi () and Dietrich Henckel
Additional contact information
Antonella Radicchi: Department for the Built Environment, Birmingham City University, Birmingham B4 7XG, UK
Dietrich Henckel: Institute of Urban and Regional Planning, Technical University of Berlin, 10623 Berlin, Germany

Sustainability, 2023, vol. 15, issue 2, 1-13

Abstract: This article makes the case for addressing pedestrian visual diversity when planning artificial light for public spaces at night, by drawing upon original findings from an exploratory study where twenty-one open-ended interviews were conducted with experts in the fields of artificial lighting, urban planning and health studies. Specifically, this article provides (1) the introduction of the concept of pedestrian visual diversity, defined as the condition, capabilities and needs of visually impaired pedestrians, (2) a systematization of overlooked issues in the planning of artificial light for visual diverse pedestrians in public spaces and (3) the proposition of a participatory framework for the application of lightwalks as an experiential method for involving visual diverse pedestrians in the data collection on and analysis of artificial lighting in public spaces at night. In conclusion, it identifies five strands for further research at the nexus of pedestrian visual diversity, public space and night studies for inclusive light planning.

Keywords: public spaces; artificial light; night; urban planning; universal design; visual diversity; vision; inclusivity; light walks (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/15/2/1488/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/15/2/1488/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:15:y:2023:i:2:p:1488-:d:1033665

Access Statistics for this article

Sustainability is currently edited by Ms. Alexandra Wu

More articles in Sustainability from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().