Outdoor Lighting Promoting Well-Being

Abstract

It is becoming widely understood that besides affecting visual, social and psychological environment, outdoor lighting is also biological environment. This review combines lighting related research efforts of various fields and provides insights for outdoor lighting supporting well-being. The review focuses on the well-being of humans but it is acknowledged that the well-being of humans is largely based on the well-being of the whole ecosystem. The review also briefly discusses the effects of artificial light at night on various organisms and biological systems. Finally, the review summarizes the research results on the possible effects on well-being caused by the changes in intensity, spectrum, spatial distribution and temporal distribution of light. The focus is on the mesopic lighting conditions, as the outdoor environments typically represent such light levels. The results are targeted to affect the design choices of outdoor lighting practices.