Evaluation of illuminance on public courts located in the urban area of the city of Cuenca

Abstract

In the urban areas of the city of Cuenca, Ecuador, there are public sport courts and fields, with free access for citizens to perform different recreational activities. These areas are used on certain days of the week with restricted schedules during the night time. For this purpose, they are equipped with a lighting system, which lighting provision is the reason for this research. This paper starts with a description of the legal responsibilities for public lighting provision in public sports fields, which in these cases, falls to the Municipality of Cuenca, legally named “Decentralized Autonomous Government of the Canton Cuenca”. Then, the architecture of these public areas as well as their lighting systems are described. Following, it presents the methodology used to obtain the average horizontal illuminance on the surfaces of the analyzed areas. After that, it analyses the lighting levels by comparing them with the mean illuminance values recommended in the “Technical Regulation on Lighting and Public Lighting - RETILAP”, for this type of sport areas. Finally, it presents the conclusions and recommendations.