On the 31st of March this year, after 18 months of hard work, the KID project came to an official end. The partners are now finishing up reporting, so let's take this moment to also wrap everything up on here, by means of a final project update. Let's go over everything that the project has achieved, and what it has in store for the future - because even though KID may have ended, our ambitions with regards to light pollution measurements have not diminished whatsoever.
The KID project was initiated to address the growing concern of light pollution in the Wadden Sea Region. Artificial light has been seeping into the area, and as one the darkest regions of Europe, with darkness having become a rarity, it is incredibly important to monitor this light here. Light pollution endangers biodiversity, damages heritage, and negatively impacts human health. As such, the project aimed to develop a robust, long term system for monitoring the excessive and misdirected artificial light in the environment. Our area of interest spans parts of the Netherlands, Germany and Denmark, and covers various colour bands of light, in particular the blue, a very significant colour, which has thus far seemingly fallen through the cracks. After all, the intensity and colour of light affect nature in different ways. The universities of Groningen, Oldenburg, and Aarhus have established a vibrant collaboration between experts and students for development of the KID monitoring system.
Our main pilot sites, consisting of a bright and a dark location within each collaborating country, have been up and running for a few months up to more than a year, depending on the site. The core system set up (for more information regarding this matter please see our Detectors and Data section) at our pilot locations consists of a Sky Quality Meter (SQM) detector, integrated into the KID-Groningen network, and a Digital Single-Lens Reflex (DSLR) camera based system (KID-RP or KID-6D, depending on the DSLR camera). The system and its accompanying developed analysis pipeline have been intensively tested. We have compared a variety of devices and procedures (including calibration methods) and we are working on deciding on which sets of detectors are the best for a larger roll-out with permanent installation. One thing that is sure, is that the local KID network outperforms (VIIRS) satellite measurements in terms of accuracy. Our analysis also lies at the heart of a discussion on standardisation of sky brightness measurements. Besides, we have connected our measurements to ecological studies (check out our article Giving a Voice to ALAN Impacted Nature for example) and local communities and industries.
All in all, our monitoring system is being prepared, through gaining more data and more experience using the system, for (local) administrators to start using it. We have already found a number of partners that are interested. We are also working on a new interface for our data presentation, so more sites can be included, and the system is being polished to be easy to use and interpret, with uncertainties that can be understood easily. This has been done while staying in close contact with authorities, working on a sustainable future, to see what works best for them. Especially through EURODARK 2024, where we have presented our work in great detail, we have build up a network of stakeholders, from various different backgrounds. We have also been rather active in public engagement, with the aim of drawing attention to the general problem of light as a pollutant, by means of presentations at events and talks and stands at conferences, to name a few.
A few weeks ago, on the 21st of May to be precise, we already made lots of our data available to the public (please see our Data Access is Now available! article on how to gain access yourself) as well. On the associated data webpage we have carefully organised our data for every pilot site. We have also attached two small workshops on how to work with the KID data, if you are interested.
Finally, KID will be continued as part of the large Interreg Darker Sky project, focusing on the actual reduction of light pollution. We hope to see you there!