Modelling the nocturnal ecological continuum of the State of Geneva, Switzerland, based on high-resolution nighttime imagery

Ranzoni, Jessica; Giuliani, Gregory; Huber, Laurent; Ray, Nicolas

doi:10.1016/j.rsase.2019.100268

Scientific article

English

Modelling the nocturnal ecological continuum of the State of Geneva, Switzerland, based on high-resolution nighttime imagery

Contributors

Ranzoni, Jessica; Giuliani, Gregory

; Huber, Laurent; Ray, Nicolas

Published in

Remote Sensing Applications: Society and Environment, vol. 16, 100268

Publication date

2019

Abstract

The increase of artificial light in recent decades has led to a general awareness of the harmful consequences of light pollution on biodiversity. The artificial light is however rarely taken into account in the principles of developing ecological networks. There is currently no standardized method for integrating this darkness factor into ecological network modeling. We propose a methodology for the identification of the nocturnal continuum through an approach based on the automated extraction of light sources from nocturnal orthophotography and the modeling of their visibility within a territory. The model is applied to the transboundary region of the Geneva basin in Switzerland and allows for the integration of the darkness factor into the existing ecological networks. Although the analysis does not consider metric lighting data, a viewshed analysis allows for a first large-scale mapping of the nighttime continuum and highlights the areas benefiting from very low light pollution.

Keywords

Ecological network
Light pollution
Nocturnal continuum
Nighttime imagery
Viewshed analysis

UNIGE affiliation entities

UNIGE research groups

Citation (ISO format)

RANZONI, Jessica et al. Modelling the nocturnal ecological continuum of the State of Geneva, Switzerland, based on high-resolution nighttime imagery. In: Remote Sensing Applications: Society and Environment, 2019, vol. 16, p. 100268. doi: 10.1016/j.rsase.2019.100268

Article (Published version)

Identifiers

PID : unige:124153
DOI : 10.1016/j.rsase.2019.100268

Additional URL for this publication

https://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/S235293851930240X

Journal ISSN

2352-9385

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09/10/2019 11:31:00

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09/10/2019 11:31:00

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24/10/2025 13:31:03

Status update

24/10/2025 13:31:03

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24/10/2025 13:35:27

Modelling the nocturnal ecological continuum of the State of Geneva, Switzerland, based on high-resolution nighttime imagery

Contributors

Published in

Publication date

Abstract

Keywords

UNIGE affiliation entities

UNIGE research groups

Citation (ISO format)

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Identifiers

Additional URL for this publication

Journal ISSN

Technical informations

Creation

First validation

Update

Status update

Last indexation