Urban parks are important elements of city green infrastructure. Many studies highlight their positive influence on the quality of life and human well-being as well as their significance for sustaining natural processes in built-up areas. For the last decade, much has been written about urban ecosystem services (ES), however in comparison with the abundance of studies on the potential for delivering ecosystem services by different land use and land cover types, research on the capacity of parks to deliver these services depending on site-specific elements, is relatively uncommon. Thus, this paper reports on research that explored levels of local regulating and cultural ecosystem services delivered by Warsaw parks, as these services are considered as the most important for urban dwellers. The authors based the study on data included in existing policy documents related to environmental and spatial planning for Warsaw, and evaluation of Warsaw green spaces. The assessment included 10 ecosystem services: micro-climate regulation, air quality regulation, noise reduction, balancing rainwater peaks, recreation, social inclusion, physical health benefits, nature experiences, aesthetic appreciation, and sense of identity. The assessment was performed for all Warsaw public parks, covering an area over 2 ha (n = 82). The results enabled us: (1) to assess all parks with respect to their actual impact in delivering 10 studied ecosystem services; (2) to designate their potential capacity to deliver regulating and cultural services; and (3) to allocate all assessed parks into categories that represent their predominant character (multifunctional, with cultural advantage, with regulating advantage or without any predominant function).

Modern society is fascinated by Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs), physical laziness, isolation from nature, and a preference for staying indoors. Despite the general acceptance and understanding of the health benefits of recreation in the open air, a change is being seen in the recreational patterns of urban dwellers, as they spend less time outdoors. In order to counteract such behaviours, we can try to apply ICTs to enhance time spent outdoors. The performed study aimed to find uses of ICT solutions in designing public spaces in order to enhance and promote a healthy lifestyle. The selected examples show possible applications of ICT in promoting active recreation, e.g. mobile applications for sport activities, urban games in line with the idea of the Playable City, and urban furniture and outdoor hotspots enabling access to the Internet. The research findings proved that digitisation is not only a threat to a healthy lifestyle, but that it can also create opportunities to improve the quality of life.

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