Save the date: CIVITAS FORUM Conference 2017
15th CIVITAS FORUM Conference to be held in Torres Vedras, Portugal on 27-29 September 2017
The CIVITAS Secretariat is glad to announce that this year’s CIVITAS FORUM Conference will take place on 27-29 September 2017 in Torres Vedras, Portugal. The annual event brings together the CIVITAS community from across Europe: hundreds of mobility experts, actors and stakeholders, all of whom are devoted to the development of sustainable urban mobility in their cities. The 15th edition of the CIVITAS Forum Conference will continue the tradition of offering state-of-the-art presentations, interactive workshops and sessions, interesting site visits, not to mention new innovative elements in the programme.
Book the dates 27-29 September in your agendas. Further information (e.g.: programme and calls for speakers) can be found on the event website.
The city of Torres Vedras, one of Portugal’s leading examples in sustainable urban development, was chosen to host the CIVITAS Forum 2017 because of its active involvement in CIVINET Portugal-Spain and the CIVITAS Political Advisory Committee, demonstrating a strong political commitment to sustainable mobility issues and to the CIVITAS Network.
About the host city Torres Vedras
Torres Vedras is home to almost eighty thousand inhabitants, and with an area of over 400 km2, it is the largest municipality in the district of Lisbon. The territory is still influenced by economic activities such as agriculture and wine production.
Torres Vedras has a long history of sustainable development, and has also been active for several years in tackling issues related to tourism and transport. The city’s bike sharing system was named after Joaquim Agostinho, a Torres Vedras native and international cycling champion, who won the Tour de France 12 times as well as many other championships, setting the stage for bringing leisure and sustainable mobility closer together and perhaps inspiring the city’s subsequent engagement in tourism and mobility. More recently, in 2011, the city received the QualityCoast Gold Award for striving to become a sustainable tourism destination, and was included in the DestiNet global atlas for sustainable tourism.
Last year in 2015, Torres Vedras was awarded the European Green Leaf, a new EU-led competition for small and mid-sized towns and cities recognising commitment to the environment while encouraging growth and employment. The city was particularly commended for improving mobility, enhancing water management and working to preserve biodiversity.
Indeed, one of the key reasons for choosing Torres Vedras to host next year’s Forum is its strong mobility strategy, which is successfully identifying challenges and establishing measures to improve urban mobility. Some of the achievements of this strategy include improved mobility in the historic city centre, better spatial and urban design, more pedestrian areas, enhanced inter-modal transport, an electro-mobility plan, a relocated city bus station, a walk to school programme, and two new cycling strategies.
This transformation in recent years makes Torres Vedras a very interesting case study for other aspiring small and medium-sized cities and creates the perfect backdrop for this year’s CIVITAS Forum. The city itself is a high-quality destination for sustainable tourism with its rich history, cultural heritage, vineyards, winemaking tradition, natural environment and traditional character, just 40 kilometres from the Portuguese capital of Lisbon. CIVITAS is very much looking forward to welcoming its established community and of course newcomers to next year’s Forum in Torres Vedras.
Watch the video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sKSR7frx200
