5 Lighting Principles for Parks & Plazas

Parks and plazas are the placed for entertainment and recreation. Most of residents take a walk or exercise to relax themselves. Illumination for parks and plazas is important for increasing visibility and aiding site navigation at night.

Some of the trees and/or bridges in parks and plazas are decorated with light strips to achieve a more beautiful and attractive landscape. However, more lights do not mean better lighting experience. It is said that excessive light will reduce visibility paradoxically. Moreover, excessive light may cause lighting pollution. Except for the amount of light, illumination period should also be taken into account. As most parks and plazas are open and available from 6 am to 11 pm, some of the operators will turn off the lighting fixtures during close time.

Except for former considerations, lighting for parks and plazas seems to be complex and tedious. To handle the parks and plazas lighting easier, we would like to talk about the 5 basic lighting principles for parks and plazas. In short, parks and plazas should be illuminated with minimum lighting fixtures and lighting levels to avoid lighting pollution and waste of energy.

First, only install lighting fixtures where needed

Illumination for parks and plazas should be limited and just install lighting fixtures for the areas that are genuinely need lighting. For example, illumination for roads and streets is unnecessary as those places are exceed the range of parks and plazas. Conservation and preservation areas should not be equipped with lighting fixtures commonly to protect the nature and wildlife. Artificial lighting will trespass the habitats of wildlife. The major purpose of installation of lighting fixtures is to ensure the capacity of wayfinding, over quantity of lighting fixtures will not only cause higher cost but also greater energy consumption. Lighting fixtures should be installed for the areas with higher activities and possibility to occur accident when it is dark.  

Second, illuminate each location with minimum lighting

As the classification of Illumination Engineering Society of North America (IESNA), park and plazas are the places with extremely low ambient light levels. Lighting requirements of parks and plazas are lower than most of commercial lighting. The main purpose of parks and plazas illumination is to guide the way for resident. High level of lighting will disturb the relaxing atmosphere. As a result, illuminate each location with minimum lighting is bright enough for parks and plazas. Illumination for each location should based on the activity level and lighting needs. The following table shows the lighting recommendations for different parts of parks and plazas.

Third, prevent lighting pollution for humans, plants and animals

Lighting pollution includes artificial sky glow, trespass and glare. The upward light obscures dark sky, resulting more difficult astronomy observation. While the sideward light lit up surrounding areas that do not need illumination, causing light trespass. Glare will cause visual discomfort or disability.

Lighting pollution is not only harmful to human health but also the plants and animals. Humans are daytime species. So do most of animals. The biological rhythm of humans, plants and animals are affected by lighting.

Artificial fixtures extend the illuminated period at night, but over lighting will drop the melatonin that helps sleep cycles, being harmful to human health. Animals, like fish, are attracted to the light at night and they will try to approach lighting. The leave from natural depths threatens their survival due to the lack of awareness of navigation and danger. Long time exposure to artificial lighting may modify the resistance to disease and bad weather of plants.

Generally speaking, lighting pollution is resulted as poorly shielded light. Full cut-off artificial fixtures are eligible for parks and plazas as the widespread lights are shielded and limited in glare zone. Bollard lights are widely used for parks and plazas with minimum lighting pollution and appreciate illuminance, fully filled the needs for increasing visibility and offering way guidance for visitors. The shortcoming of bollard light is the susceptible vandalism due to the lower height around 3.5 feet.

Fourth, the lighting fixtures should be able to withstand outdoor environment

As parks and plazas are located in outdoors, lighting fixture should be able to withstand harsh environment, like the heavy rain and/or snow. Heavy rain may impact the fixtures and the water may seep into the interior of fixtures, damaging the electrical network. Snow may pile up and bending the fixtures. Rain, snow and dust removal are critical for lighting fixtures to handle the outdoor environment.

The protections for lighting fixtures to against outdoor environment include waterproof, dust-proof, anti-corrosion and mechanical impacts. Numeric classifications for the degree of protections are related to IP rating and IK rating. Water and dust protection level is mostly expressed by two numbers followed by IP. “I” represents the level of protection against solid matter, the highest level is 6, while “P” represents the level of protection against water, the highest level is 8. IK rating consists of two numbers, namely IK01, IK02, IK03, IK04, IK05, IK06, IK07, IK08, IK09 and IK10. The higher the number is, the better the protection.

Fifth, use cost-effective and energy-saving lighting system

Lighting system is mainly composed of light source and the controls.

Light source

Light source should be energy-saving, long lifespan and low maintenance. Comparison of different light sources is as followed:

From the table, it is clear that LEDs have long lifespan up to 50,000 hours and high efficacy without hazardous chemical content. Therefore, LED lighting fixtures are the ideal option for parks and plazas lighting system.

Lighting control

The aim of using lighting control is to save energy consumption and electricity bill. Lighting fixtures are off when there is little or no need or the park and plazas are closed. Lighting controls mainly include timer control and motion control.

Timer control:

Time control meas the lighting fixtures are turned on or off at certain times set by parks and plazas operator. Normally, the lights will be on automatically when nightfall and off within 2 hours after sunset. The timer is adjustable according to the illumination needs of parks and plazas.

Motion control:

Motion control is functioned with the help of motion detectors. When visitors pass the lighting fixtures, lighting fixtures are on automatically and then off after a few minutes. Motion control are used at the entrances or the pathways with lower activity. The problem of using motion control is the possibility of annoying on and off lighting circuit. Additionally, the light may be off when visitors have not away from the lighting detected areas.

Both timer and motion control release the staff of parks and plazas from controlling lighting fixtures manually. But there is a argument about whether keep the light on during late night. Most operators think the light should be totally off after the parks and plazas are closed to ensure the safety of visitors, making them away from the parks and plazas. While others claim that the lights should be on even the parks and plazas are closed to reduce crime and offer illumination for pedestrians.

Parks and plazas ease humans from hard work or home to enjoy the nature. Artificial lighting provide illumination for humans to relax themself at night. But we should note that humans are connected with nature, keeping proper lighting makes better living environments for humans, animals and plants. When it come to parks and plazas lighting, conform the 5 lighting principles.