Urban Parks: Green oases in the city

Artikel met eigen illustraties in vakblad My Liveable City, uitgave juli-sept 2015

Urban parks are located within a city to offer recreation and green space to residents and visitors to the city. Today, there is a tremendous flowering of artistic and cultural activity in urban parks and people value the time they spend in parks, whether walking a dog, playing basketball or having a picnic. Along with these leisure facilities, parks can also provide measurable health benefits, from providing direct contact with nature and a cleaner environment, to opportunities for physical activity and social interaction. Vegetation in cities also reduces the higher temperature effects of urban heat

and trees help improve air quality by removing pollutants from the atmosphere. Since urban neighbourhoods have high concentrations of pollutants, urban parks are especially important

to filter the air. Additionally, urban parks create a sense of place by connecting residents to one another and to their larger environment. Today’s best urban parks are multi-use destinations and

catalysts for community development. One can find a variety of great urban parks all over the world. All of these parks provide a green oasis in an urban setting either as a place to understand and relate to nature or as a place for social and cultural exchange.