The “CIVITAS Resilience” award aimed to recognise cities that have introduced (ad-hoc) bold and transformational measures due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, combined with a clear vision regarding the resilience and long-term sustainability of the adopted approach.

In response to the coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic, Las Palmas de Gran Canaria took the bold step of drafting a pioneering document called “Mobility Plan for the New Normality”. Overall, the city has been able to adapt to the pandemic situation (e.g. expanding space for pedestrians, bicycles and personal mobility vehicles to address the need for more social distancing), considering the resources and capability of a medium-sized city, which is also a popular tourism destination.

In addition, the city combined its rapid responses imposed by the Covid-19 with a long-term vision for the implementation, up-scaling and replication of the measures. It has also implemented a Monitoring Plan to scrutinise the effectiveness of the measures.