Understanding Human Perception of Artificial Light at Night and Preferred Lighting Conditions in Parks and Protected Areas: A Pilot Study
Abstract
Naturally dark environments are increasingly threatened by artificial light at night (ALAN), even in parks and protected areas (PPAs). This study explores visitor preferences for lighting spectra and intensity in front-country, PPA-like settings to better understand how to balance human lighting needs with the protection of ecological and cultural resources. An onsite survey was conducted at a university arboretum in the United States (n = 167). Participants were asked to select preferred lighting conditions (color and intensity) using bollard fixtures with adjustable amber and white LEDs. Statistical analyses examined spectra and intensity preferences as well as demographic influences (gender, youth environment, nighttime recreation experience). Results indicate a significant preference for amber light (67%) over white light (33%). On average, participants preferred amber light at lower intensities (2.87 lux) compared to white light (5.18 lux). Prior nighttime recreation experience was associated with lower preferred light intensity and stronger selection of amber light. Participants from rural and suburban backgrounds were more likely to choose amber, while urban-raised participants showed no clear preference and tended toward higher intensities when selecting white light. This pilot study is one of the first to experimentally examine visitor lighting preferences in relation to both spectra and intensity in a PPA-like setting. Findings challenge assumptions based on industry standards, which often recommend higher light levels, and provide context-sensitive guidance for PPA lighting management. The sample consisted largely of university students, limiting age diversity and generalizability. Future research across broader populations and within actual PPAs is needed to validate results. Findings suggest that lower-intensity amber lighting can meet visitor needs while minimizing ecological impacts, offering managers evidence-based strategies for sustainable lighting design in PPAs. By aligning visitor preferences with conservation goals, PPA managers can protect naturally dark skies while maintaining visitor safety and experience, supporting the rise of noctourism - nighttime recreation and tourism that values darkness as a resource - and reinforcing the cultural and ecological significance of darkness as a shared resource.
References
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[2] Aubrecht, Christoph, et al. (2010). Lighting governance for protected areas and beyond–Identifying the urgent need for sustainable management of artificial light at night. PLoS One, 8: e61460.
[3] Bará, Salvador, and Fabio Falchi. (2023). Artificial light at night: a global disruptor of the night-time environment. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society, B 378, no. 1892: 20220352.
[4] Beeco, A., J. C. Hallo, and B. L. Smith. (2013). Night as an influence on wilderness: A broadening of scope. Int. J. Wilderness, 19(2 ): 25-29.
[5] Beeco, J. Adam, et al. (2023). Support for management actions to protect night sky quality: Insights from visitors to state and national park units in the US. Journal of Environmental Management, 345: 118878.
[6] Beeco, J. Adam, Jeffrey C. Hallo, Elizabeth D. Baldwin, and Francis A. McQuire. (2011). An examination of the guided night hiking experience in parks and protected areas. Journal of Park and Recreation Administration 29(4).
[7] Beeco, J. Adam, et al. (2025). Night lights versus conservation dreams: balancing human preferences with conservation goals in protected areas for sustainable nature-based noctourism. Journal of Sustainable Tourism, 1-24.
[8] Benfield, Jacob A., et al. (2018). A laboratory study of the psychological impact of light pollution in national parks. Journal of Environmental Psychology, 57 (2018): 67-72.
[9] Bennie, Jonathan, James P. Duffy, Thomas W. Davies, Maria Eugenia Correa-Cano, and Kevin J. Gaston. (2015). Global trends in exposure to light pollution in natural terrestrial ecosystems. Remote Sensing, 7(3): 2715-2730.
[10] Boomsma, C., & Steg, L. (2014). The effect of information and values on acceptability of reduced street lighting. Journal of Environmental Psychology, 39, 22-31.
[11] Bullough, John D., J. A. Brons, R. Qi, and M. S. Rea. (2008). Predicting discomfort glare from outdoor lighting installations. Lighting Research & Technology, 40(3): 225-242.
[12] Calleri, Cristina, et al. (2019). The effect of soundscapes and lightscapes on the perception of safety and social presence analyzed in a laboratory experiment. Sustainability 11(11): 3000.
[13] Cronin, Thomas W., Sönke Johnsen, Justin Marshall, and Eric J. Warrant. (2014). Visual ecology. Princeton University Press.
[14] Crump, Morgan C., et al. (2021). Effects of low-level artificial light at night on Kentucky bluegrass and an introduced herbivore. Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution, 9: 732959.
[15] Crump, Morgan. (2023). Understanding Visitor Perception of Artificial Light at Night in Natural Areas: A Study of Visitor Experience in Determining a Light Level Threshold.
[16] Davidovic, M., L. Djokic, A. Cabarkapa, and M. Kostic. (2019). Warm white versus neutral white LED street lighting: Pedestrians' impressions. Lighting Research & Technology, 51(8): 1237-1248.
[17] Duriscoe, Dan. (2001). Preserving pristine night skies in national parks and the wilderness ethic. In The George Wright Forum, 18(4): 30-36. George Wright Society.
[18] Elgert, Christina, Juhani Hopkins, Arja Kaitala, and Ulrika Candolin. (2020). Reproduction under light pollution: maladaptive response to spatial variation in artificial light in a glow-worm. Proceedings of the Royal Society B 287, no. 1931: 20200806.
[19] Elvidge, Christopher D., David M. Keith, Benjamin T. Tuttle, and Kimberly E. Baugh. (2010). Spectral identification of lighting type and character. Sensors, 10(4): 3961-3988.
[20] Falchi, Fabio, Pierantonio Cinzano, Christopher D. Elvidge, David M. Keith, and Abraham Haim. (2011). Limiting the impact of light pollution on human health, environment and stellar visibility. Journal of environmental management, 92(10): 2714-2722.
[21] Fristrup, Kurt, et al. (2024). National Park visitors perceive benefits for themselves and wildlife under blended red-white outdoor lighting. Scientific reports, 14(1): 21791.
[22] Gallaway, Terrel, Reed N. Olsen, and David M. Mitchell. (2010). The economics of global light pollution. Ecological economics, 69(3): 658-665.
[23] Gaston, Kevin J., Sian Gaston, Jonathan Bennie, and John Hopkins. (2015). Benefits and costs of artificial nighttime lighting of the environment. Environmental Reviews 23(1) 14-23.
[24] Gaston, Kevin J., Thomas W. Davies, Jonathan Bennie, and John Hopkins. (2012). Reducing the ecological consequences of night‐time light pollution: options and developments. Journal of Applied Ecology, 49(6): 1256-1266.
[25] Gaston, Kevin J., Thomas W. Davies, Sophie L. Nedelec, and Lauren A. Holt. "Impacts of artificial light at night on biological timings." Annual Review of Ecology, Evolution, and Systematics 48, no. 1 (2017): 49-68.
[26] Henry, Cait M., et al. (2022). "It Felt Like Walking Through a Night Sky": Managing the Visitor Experience During Biologically Based Nighttime Events. Event Management 26(2): 387-403.
[27] Himschoot, Elizabeth A., et al. (2024). Feelings of safety for visitors recreating outdoors at night in different artificial lighting conditions. Journal of Environmental Psychology, 97: 102374.
[28] Hiort-Lorenzen, Anna-Rosa, Beáta E. Kublik, Gordon Jäntsch, Paulina M. Dudkiewicz, and Georgios Triantafyllidis. (2018). "Creating identity with nature inspired lighting design–The Sensitive Organism." In SHS Web of Conferences, vol. 43, p. 01006. EDP Sciences, 2018.
[29] Illuminating Engineering Society (IES). 2022. ANSI/IES RP-43-22, Recommended Practice: Lighting Exterior Applications. New York: Illuminating Engineering Society. Retrived from https://lightinglibrary.ies.org/document/?contentCode=IES%7CANSI%2FIES%20RP43-22%7Cen-US.
[30] Kang, S. W., et al. (2010). Melanopsin expression in dopamine-melatonin neurons of the premammillary nucleus of the hypothalamus and seasonal reproduction in birds. Neuroscience 170(1): 200-213.
[31] Keen, J., and O. Dorell. (2012). National parks, wilderness areas hunt for young visitors. USA Today: April 5
[32] Klinkenborg, Verlyn. (2008). Light pollution. National Geographic Magazine 214, no. 5
[33] Kulesza, C., Y. Le, and S. J. Hollenhorst. (2013). National Park Service visitor perceptions & values of clean air, scenic views, & dark night skies; 1988-2011." Natural Resource Report NPS/NRSS/ARD/NRR–2013/632. National (2013).
[34] Kyba, Christopher CM, Yiğit Öner Altıntaş, Constance E. Walker, and Mark Newhouse. (2023). Citizen scientists report global rapid reductions in the visibility of stars from 2011 to 2022. Science 379(6629): 265-268.
[35] Lis, Aleksandra, Magdalena Zienowicz, and Aleksandra Błachnio. (2024). Lighting Features Affecting the Well-Being of Able-Bodied People and People with Physical Disabilities in the Park in the Evening: An Integrated and Sustainable Approach to Lighting Urban Green Areas. Sustainability, 16(20): 8871.
[36] Longcore, Travis, and Catherine Rich. (2004). Ecological Light Pollution. Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment, 2 (4): 191–98. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1890/1540-9295(2004)002[0191:ELP]2.0.CO;2
[37] Mace, Britton L., Paul A. Bell, and Ross J. Loomis. (2004). Visibility and natural quiet in national parks and wilderness areas: Psychological considerations. Environment and Behavior, 36(1): 5-31.
[38] Manning, Robert, Ellen Rovelstad, Chadwick Moore, Jeffrey Hallo, and Brandi Smith. (2015). Indicators and standards of quality for viewing the night sky in the national parks. Park Science, 32(2): 9-17.
[39] Mitchell, David, and Terrel Gallaway. (2019). Dark sky tourism: economic impacts on the Colorado Plateau Economy, USA. Tourism Review, 74(4): 930-942.
[40] Moore, Marianne V., Susan J. Kohler, Melani S. Cheers, C. Rich, and T. Longcore. (2006). Artificial light at night in freshwater habitats and its potential ecological effects. Ecological consequences of artificial night lighting, (2006): 365-384.
[41] Page, T. L. (2017). Circadian Rhythms: Circadian Regulation in Invertebrates.
[42] Peña-García, Antonio, A. Hurtado, and Maria Carmen Aguilar-Luzón. (2015). Impact of public lighting on pedestrians’ perception of safety and well-being. Safety science, 78: 142-148.
[43] Peña-García, Antonio, and Adam Sędziwy. (2020). Optimizing lighting of rural roads and protected areas with white light: A compromise among light pollution, energy savings, and visibility. Leukos 16(2): 147-156.
[44] R Core Team. (2021). R: A language and environment for statistical computing. R foundation for statistical computing, Vienna, Austria.
[45] Sanders, Dirk, Enric Frago, Rachel Kehoe, Christophe Patterson, and Kevin J. Gaston. (2021).A meta-analysis of biological impacts of artificial light at night. Nature Ecology & Evolution, 5(1): 74-81.
[46] Schulte-Römer, Nona, Josiane Meier, Max Söding, and Etta Dannemann. (2019). The LED paradox: how light pollution challenges experts to reconsider sustainable lighting. Sustainability, 11(21): 6160.
[47] Seymoure, Brett M., et al. (2025). Global artificial light masks biologically important light cycles of animals. Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment, 23(4): e2832.
[48] Smith, Brandi, and Jeffrey Hallo. (2019). Informing good lighting in parks through visitors’ perceptions and experiences. International Journal of Sustainable Lighting, 21(2): 47-65.
[49] Stone, Taylor. (2017). Light pollution: A case study in framing an environmental problem. Ethics, Policy & Environment 20(3), 279-293.
Published
2025-11-29
How to Cite
CRUMP, Morgan et al.
Understanding Human Perception of Artificial Light at Night and Preferred Lighting Conditions in Parks and Protected Areas: A Pilot Study.
Journal of Environmental Management and Tourism, [S.l.], v. 16, n. 4, p. 341-354, nov. 2025.
ISSN 2068-7729.
Available at: <https://www.journals.aserspublishing.eu/jemt/article/view/9198>. Date accessed: 02 dec. 2025.
doi: https://doi.org/10.14505/jemt.v16.4(80).01.
Section
Article
Copyright© 2025 The Author(s). Published by ASERS Publishing 2025. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of CC-BY 4.0 license.