EU-cities have worked on improvement of urban lighting, but this was focused on efficiency and cost- and emission reduction. Until now, little or no consideration has been given to the impact that urban lighting has on the health and well-being of citizens. This will be the focus of the new research project ENLIGHTENme. The project is funded for the next four years with €5 million by Horizon 2020-research and innovation program.
With a growing world population and an increasing urbanization comes an underestimated byproduct: the increase of human exposure to electric light at night. Excessive and disruptive exposure to light at night, or too little exposure to light during the day has major impact on people’s day and night rhythms, health and well-being. Knowledge of the health effects and knowledge for the development of adequate urban lighting strategies are therefore crucial.
This is where ENLIGHTENme comes in: by bringing together experts from different scientific fields and sectors such as urban development and health research, the ENLIGHTENme team aims to gather evidence on the impact of outdoor and indoor lighting on human health and well-being. In addition, ENLIGHTENme aims to develop and test innovative solutions and policies that will compensate for health inequalities in European cities. The project collects data in Bologna (Italy), Amsterdam (the Netherlands) and Tartu (Estonia).
ENLIGHTENme is coordinated by the University of Bologna in Italy. Together with five other projects, ENLIGHTENme is part of the EU’s new ‘Urban Health’ cluster. In the Netherlands, the project is a close collaboration between VU Amsterdam and the City of Amsterdam, led by APH-researcher Meike Bartels, and started officially with a kick-off meeting on March 4 and 5, 2021.
Read more (in Dutch) at the VU Amsterdam website.