The aging Baby Boomer generation has been called the “silver tsunami,” and Greater Des Moines is already riding the crest of that wave.

Less than two decades from now, it’s estimated that more than one-third of the metro area’s population will be age 65 or older. Now, through an initiative led by AARP Iowa, Greater Des Moines will become a nexus for making U.S. cities more “age-friendly” so that seniors can remain active and engaged in their communities for as long as possible.

Last fall, the World Health Organization (WHO) accepted the city of Des Moines into its network of Age Friendly Cities, a designation then held by only two other U.S. cities: Portland, Ore., and New York.

Since then, AARP Iowa, which has 380,000 members in the state, has organized a multiyear effort aimed at examining Greater Des Moines’ services and infrastructure for age-friendliness. The effort will build on work already accomplished by the WHO and cities such as New York, which in the past two years has initiated 59 age-friendly initiatives, among them longer street crossing times and a new emergency alert system for missing older adults.

On April 4, the WHO and AARP announced plans to expand their involvement in the initiative, naming Des Moines among eight cities with which the organizations will work to create a network of Age Friendly Cities.

“We’re not starting out with a blank sheet of paper,” said Kent Sovern, state director of AARP Iowa. “The great thing about this is that it’s all research-based.” Sovern said a goal is to incorporate age-friendly recommendations into other planning efforts under way, including Capital Crossroads, the DART Forward 2035 Plan and The Tomorrow Plan.

“We’re going to drive this from the neighborhood up,” Sovern said. “From my experience on the Des Moines Plan and Zoning Commission, I know the real roots of the community are the neighborhood plans and the neighborhood associations.”

The planning efforts will culminate with a June 27 round-table event in Des Moines co-sponsored by AARP and Governing magazine, which is one of five events planned nationally, all leading up to a summary event in Washington, D.C. The Des Moines round table “will have a lot of ‘star power,’” Sovern said.