Lighting of facilities
Varied demands are imposed on lighting systems. In addition to attracting effects, advertising purposes, etc., it is also the safe use of facilities in the dark that has to be guaranteed. Above all this applies to workplaces outdoors. Restricting the lighting to just the desired area is often not possible, which can then disturb neighbooring facilities or housing areas. A well-known example for this are floodlights on sporting grounds.

Light in terms of immission
According to the German Federal Immission Control Act (BImSchG), light is one of the immissions that is liable to cause considerable disadvantage or nuisance to the public or neighbourhood, depending on the type, extent and duration of exposure.

Authorization procedures or environmental compatibility studies often require statements on light immissions to comply with the Immission Control Act. Already in the development planning phase, some information should be given concerning the protection against light immission just as it is done for sound immission control.

Due to legal planning demands on outdoor lighting systems (such as maximum height of poles, type of lamps, etc.) or, in general, the requirement to meet the standard immission values, it is possible to prevent problems at an early stage.

Evaluation of light immissions
For the evaluation of light immissions the following effects on the neighbourhood are taken into account:

• Lightening-up of living rooms and bedrooms caused by lighting systems in the neighbourhood.
• Disturbing glare caused by intense light sources. Due to an unintended deflection of the vision line, a constantly changing adaptation of the eye is required.

Measurement of light immissions
On existing facilities we perform measurements to determine the respective photometric data on site. The light immission of the actual lighting situation is determined taking potential disturbing light sources into account.

Based on the measuring results obtained we evaluate the lightening-up of a room as well as possible glaring and suggest efficient measures to reduce the respective nuisance.

Prediction for planned facilities
By means of prediction calculations we estimate the light impact of planned facilities onto the neighbourhood, whereby various lighting scenarios are simulated and studied.

On the basis of development plans with concrete concepts of use (industrial zones, residential buildings, etc.) possible conflict areas can be outlined by predicting light immissions. However, they strongly depend on the actual lighting design of each individual facility and thus can only conservatively be predicted in a first step.