Committees

Committees

World Urban Parks has five advocacy committees that work on diverse initiatives all working towards creating greener and more livable communities. 

These committees are a great way to connect with international colleagues and work together towards our common goals.

If you have an interest in these committees there are still places for members. Please feel free to contact the chairs directly, or contact ceo@worldurbanparks.org or office@worldurbanparks.org for more information.


Children, Play & Nature
Whether by necessity or choice, more children around the world are living in urban areas. For the first time in human history, we are now more urban than rural society, with 55% of the global population now living in cities and growing rapidly.
In just a few generations, access to play opportunities and nature-rich experiences for children have decreased significantly. This global deficit of play and nature has negative impacts for children's healthy development. There is a growing body of research that highlights the many benefits of play and nature experience on children's physical, mental, social cognitive, and emotional health.
Large Parks
It was recognized that large urban parks can have unique socio-cultural environmental and economic roles and issues. A World Urban Parks-hosted web conference of large urban parks leaders in November 2015 endorsed a term of reference and proposed a Large Urban Parks executive committee and initial activities to facilitate a Large Urban Parks Network.
Large urban parks provide both common and unique issues for planning, management, revitalization, and ongoing care. They also provide services beyond those of small urban parks and squares. There is a need to share knowledge about how to handle various tasks and issues among large urban parks stewards, managers, funders, planners, defenders, and advocates.
Climate Change
Urban parks and green infrastructure (GI) play a significant role in climate change through education, mitigation, and adaptation. Parks are also critical infrastructure for urban resilience. In addition to the immense challenge posed by climate change, cities around the world face shocks and stressors of all kinds daily. Parks may not be able to solve all these problems, but they are key to inclusive, resilient, and regenerative urban development.
World Urban Parks' Climate Change and Resilience committee convenes a multidisciplinary group from around the planet to advise cities and share, best practices, and guidelines to build or renovate urban parks with resilient design, best practices, guidelines to increase community resilience and social equity, and more.


Climate Change
Urban parks and green infrastructure (GI) play a significant role in climate change through education, mitigation, and adaptation. Parks are also critical infrastructure for urban resilience. In addition to the immense challenge posed by climate change, cities around the world face shocks and stressors of all kinds daily. Parks may not be able to solve all these problems, but they are key to inclusive, resilient, and regenerative urban development.
World Urban Parks' Climate Change and Resilience committee convenes a multidisciplinary group from around the planet to advise cities and share, best practices, and guidelines to build or renovate urban parks with resilient design, best practices, guidelines to increase community resilience and social equity, and more.


Ageing, Well-being and Parks
Older adults make up an increasing percentage of the population in many countries and often, as we age, parks become increasingly inaccessible. Therefore, although parks are public spaces should connect individuals of all ages and backgrounds, we need to ensure that these spaces are truly accessible for all to enjoy.
The Older Adults and Parks Committee is set up to advocate for and champion change, leading to best practice in government policy, professional design, park presentation and community engagement
World Parks Academy
The World Parks Academy is a joint program of Indiana University’s Eppley Institute for Parks and Public Lands and World Urban Parks.

Professional development for parks and recreation professionals has typically been reserved for national certifying organizations. Indiana University’s World Parks Academy seeks to unite national certification systems by providing the first international competency-based certification programs for the parks and recreation industry. Additionally, the World Parks Academy provides certifications for countries without a current national certifying body.
Healthy Parks, Healthy Cities
A healthy city sustains healthy people. For the first time in history, more of the planets' population now live in urban areas. There are growing public health concerns including rising global rates of chronic diseases such as obesity, hypertension, depression, and anxiety.
Parks are emerging as important public health resources that can enhance people's mental, physical, and social wellbeing by connecting people to nature, offering respite, providing access to physical activity opportunities, and serving as safe vibrant spaces for fostering social connections. Diverse urban spaces including parks, gardens, urban forests, community gardens, and park-lets can all support people's health and wellbeing. So, the need to ensure that cities are vibrant, sustainable, accessible, well-planned, and designed is critical.


Cemeteries
In many parts of the world cemeteries are spaces in our cities that are used so that people can enjoy a time of silence and reflection. Also in some parts are spaces for running or walking. The Cemeteries Committee seeks to share best practices in the administration and management of these important spaces in our cities.
Our Committees Leadership