Artificial Lighting and Biodiversity in Switzerland
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Artificial lighting and Biodiversity in Switzerland Technical Report V4 - Jan 2019 James Hale and Raphaël Arlettaz University of Bern 1 Table of Contents 1 Introduction .....................................................................................................................4 1.1 Background to this report .........................................................................................4 1.2 Key findings from this study: .....................................................................................4 1.3 Key recommendations: .............................................................................................5 1.4 Ecological actions overview ......................................................................................7 2 Data availability on Swiss artificial lighting .......................................................................9 2.1 Summary ..................................................................................................................9 2.2 Introduction and background ..................................................................................10 2.3 Review and analysis of Swiss lighting data.............................................................10 2.3.1 VIIRS DNB (satellite mounted sensor).............................................................10 2.3.2 ISS images ......................................................................................................12 2.3.3 Street lamp inventories ....................................................................................18 2.3.4 Aerial plane night photography ........................................................................22 2.3.5 Sky quality measurements and mapping .........................................................23 2.3.6 Defense Meteorological Satellite Program (DMSP) Operational linescan system (OLS) 25 2.3.7 Other data sources ..........................................................................................26 2.4 Spatial and temporal lighting analysis.....................................................................26 2.4.1 Spatial Analysis ...............................................................................................26 2.4.2 Temporal Analysis ...........................................................................................37 2.5 Emission indicator development .............................................................................43 2.5.1 Existing lighting indicators ...............................................................................43 2.5.2 Future Swiss lighting indicators .......................................................................44 3 Literature review on the impacts of artificial lighting on Swiss species and habitats .......46 3.1 Summary ................................................................................................................46 3.2 Introduction ............................................................................................................47 3.2.1 Recent research progress ...............................................................................48 3.2.2 Scope ..............................................................................................................49 3.2.3 Aims of this review ..........................................................................................49 3.3 Methodology ...........................................................................................................49 3.3.1 Identify species and habitats of conservation concern in Switzerland ..............50 3.3.2 Identifying lighting search terms ......................................................................50 3.3.3 Undertake literature searches .........................................................................50 3.3.4 Paper coding ...................................................................................................51 3.4 Results ...................................................................................................................52 3.4.1 Mammals (excluding bats)...............................................................................52 3.4.2 Bats .................................................................................................................53 3.4.3 Birds ................................................................................................................55 3.4.4 Amphibians .....................................................................................................57 2 3.4.5 Reptiles ...........................................................................................................58 3.4.6 Fish .................................................................................................................58 3.4.7 Coleoptera ......................................................................................................58 3.4.8 Lepidoptera .....................................................................................................59 3.4.9 Odonata ..........................................................................................................59 3.4.10 Orthoptera .......................................................................................................59 3.4.11 Ephemeroptera, Plecoptera and Trichoptera (EPT) .........................................59 3.4.12 Gastropods and Bivalves.................................................................................60 3.4.13 Decapoda ........................................................................................................60 3.4.14 Fungi and Lichens ...........................................................................................60 3.4.15 Plants ..............................................................................................................61 3.5 Discussion ..............................................................................................................61 4 Ecological impact mapping ............................................................................................62 4.1 Summary ................................................................................................................62 4.2 GIS analysis of Swiss lighting vs sensitive habitats ................................................64 4.2.1 Local lamp databases and fine-scale ecological impacts .................................64 4.2.2 VIIRS data and locations of potential conflict ...................................................66 4.2.3 3 VIIRS-based indicators of potential ecological impacts .................................68 4.3 Exploration of the impact of future lighting scenarios ..............................................98 4.3.1 Predicting locations of change in artificial lighting emissions ...........................98 4.3.2 Exploring other future changes in lighting emissions .......................................99 4.4 Mitigation options ................................................................................................. 100 5 Report recommendations ............................................................................................ 102 6 References .................................................................................................................. 104 7 Appendices ................................................................................................................. 110 7.1 Appendix 1 - Accompanying group for the project ................................................ 110 7.2 Appendix 2 – search terms used for WoS (Web of Science) search ..................... 111 3 1 Introduction 1.1 Background to this report This report provides an overview of the findings from the project - Artificial Lighting and Biodiversity in Switzerland, funded by the Bundesamt für Umwelt (BAFU) and undertaken by Dr. James Hale and Prof. Raphaël Arlettaz at the University of Bern. The project began on the 1st October 2015 and was completed at the end of 2017. Its goal was to build solid foundations for sound assessments of lighting emissions in Switzerland, to support emerging research on the ecological impacts of artificial light emissions. The research project had three distinct phases, which are presented as the three main chapters of this report. 1 Review, secure and explore a range of spatial and temporal datasets for lighting infrastructure and emissions in Switzerland. 2 Undertake a review of the priority species, habitats and ecological groups in Switzerland that are sensitive to artificial lighting. 3 Ecological impact mapping to identify locations where impacts are expected now, and under future plausible lighting scenarios. 1.2 Key findings from this study: Because of the interest in artificial lighting from energy, nuisance, astronomy and ecology perspectives, it is important to try and understand how the quality and quantity of lighting emissions and lighting infrastructure varies within Switzerland and over time. Fortunately there are many valuable types of lighting data that already exist, and the monthly VIIRS satellite data appears to have good potential for both emission and ecological-impact indicators. Seasonal winter peaks are evident for Switzerland as a whole, and are particularly clear for medium-high altitude settlements, but apparently absent in cities. Summer VIIRS data appears to be more stable and may therefore be a good indicator of actual changes to lighting infrastructure (e.g. greater