Description

The Portuguese Association of Urban Planners (APU) is a professional association that promotes the recognition of the urban planning profession and the fundamental role that spatial planning has in the well-being and quality of life of populations.

APU was established on December 18, 2017, results from the merger of three associations – the Portuguese Association of Territorial Planners (APPLA) (since 1993), the Professional Association of Portuguese Urban Planners (APROURB) (since 2002), and the Association of Portuguese Urban Planners (AUP) (since 1983) – founded on the common desire to defend professional qualifications and the practice of urban planning in Portugal.

Its general objectives are to promote the appreciation, dissemination and good practices of urbanism, to ensure the social value of its practice, to contribute to its scientific and cultural valorization and to defend respect for its deontological principles.
Its specific objectives are to contribute to the dignification of the exercise of the activity of urbanism, in its various dimensions:

• Professional – supporting the qualification of its members and their insertion and affirmation in the labor market;
• Social– promoting a planning culture that safeguards compliance with established principles and rules;
• Academic– monitoring the training offers in urbanism assessing their adjustment to emerging practical needs;
• Research– putting on the agenda concrete themes and challenges that justify a more personalized technical-scientific framework;
• Associative– narrowing and strengthening contact networks with other similar organizations, national and international;
• Legal – participating in the construction of laws and regulations that lead to a more sustainable, participatory, transparent and equitable spatial planning.