Towards a unified framework for a simulation-based integrative lighting evaluation: A scoping review of procedures applied in educational environments

Today, lighting design in educational environments is required to address both visual and non-visual needs of users, adhering to the concept of the integrative light. In doing so, it is also fundamental to complement daylight and electric light. However, designers face significant practical difficulties due to fragmented international standards (which consider diverse aspects in isolation) and the variety of simulation software at their disposal, which often yield non-comparable results. These difficulties underscore the lack of a unified framework for lighting condition evaluation. This paper serves as a propaedeutic step for its definition, presenting a scoping review to identify current shared simulation-based procedures to evaluate visual and circadian responses due to both daylight and electric light in educational environments. A literature search was performed in the Scopus and Web of Science databases, selecting 19 contributions. Their analysis demonstrates methodological trends and gaps as well. While work plane illuminance is commonly used to quantify light levels for visual comfort, melanopic Equivalent Daylight Illuminance emerges as the main metric for circadian entrainment evaluation. Reference planes’ height is almost consistent between reviewed studies (70 cm–80 cm for visual tasks and 120 cm for non-visual effects), yet the number and placement of calculation points over the reference plane and view directions vary depending on the study. Glare is an under-researched aspect, and, when considered, different approaches are used. As regards daylight, some of the reviewed papers chose a dynamic approach, while others use a static one, without consensus on the simulation schedule to consider.