Opinions, think-pieces, articles and observations around smart cities and the future of urban living.
As urban landscapes expand and technology advances, the brilliance of our night skies is steadily being overshadowed by artificial light. The enchanting spectacle of a starlit sky is fading from view, obscured by the pervasive glow of urban development. The Dark Skies initiative stands as a beacon of hope, striving to safeguard this celestial heritage for future generations.
The Northern Lights, or Aurora Borealis, made a rare and spectacular appearance across the UK last Friday and Saturday, enchanting sky watchers nationwide. This event, the likes of which haven’t been seen since the extreme geomagnetic storm of 2003, brought vibrant auroras to areas far beyond their usual northern limits. Such breathtaking sights are becoming more frequent as we approach the solar maximum of the Sun's 11-year cycle, with increased sunspot activity leading to more intense auroras.
Switching to LED lighting can have a major impact and the time to act is now
This article was first published in the ILP's Lighting Journal. Offering CMS, or lighting control, as a managed service could be one way for local authorities to reconnect with their tenant businesses and smaller villages, as well as potentially providing valuable revenue in a challenging economic environment.
Smart lighting is making a huge difference to the energy budget of local authorities. Dr Jon Lewis sets out the next set of cloud-based applications which will have an equally positive impact on city operations. This article was first published in the ILP's Lighting Journal.
This article was first published in the ILP's Lighting Journal. In the first of a two-part series about smart streetlights and CMS, David Orchard looks back over the past decade of CMS in the UK and what can be learnt from this about changing attitudes and adoption strategies by local authorities
With suitable utility tariffs those organisations doing the right thing by adopting greener streetlight technologies would be rewarded with lower energy bills.
