International Organization for Standards (ISO) has announced a new standard for quality of life in cities.

ISO City Standard  (retrieved from http://conference.cityminded.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/Patricia_McCarney_PDF.pdf)

ISO City Standard (retrieved from http://conference.cityminded.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/Patricia_McCarney_PDF.pdf)

In London, UK on November 17-18, 2014, ISO in conjunction the World Council on City Data (WCCD) launches the  the first international standard for sustainable cities, ISO 37120: Sustainable development of communities — Indicators for city services and quality of life.

Working with cities who want a standard created by and for cities, WCCD and ISO 37120 have announced an initial suite of 46 indicators.  These indicators, enable the 4 Voices of the City, to access objective, verified (by auditors) vital signs (aka indicators) to to compare services and performance levels with other cities around the world. Civic managers (generally the policy makers in the city) can now be held accountable by citizens, businesses and civil society organizations by using the ISO 37120 standards as a tool that is  evidence based and annually updated.

ISO Comparative Analytics for Cities  (retrieved from http://conference.cityminded.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/Patricia_McCarney_PDF.pdf)

ISO Comparative Analytics for Cities (retrieved from http://conference.cityminded.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/Patricia_McCarney_PDF.pdf)

ISO lists the benefits of the standard for cities as providing:

• More effective governance and delivery of services
• Local and international benchmarking and planning
• Informed decision making for policy makers and city managers
• Learning across cities
• Recognition by international entities
• Leverage for funding by cities with senior levels of government
• Framework for sustainability planning
• Transparency and open data for investment attractiveness

The WCCD has identified 20 foundation cities who have agreed to adopt ISO 37120 and help build the WCCD, basing its initial set of indicators on 17 Themes.

17 Themes for City Indicators  (retrieved from http://conference.cityminded.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/Patricia_McCarney_PDF.pdf)

17 Themes for City Indicators (retrieved from http://conference.cityminded.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/Patricia_McCarney_PDF.pdf)

 

As we have written elsewhere, for an Integral City, key city indicators must be balanced amongst the four quadrants and based on the city as a living, complex adaptive system. While at least one of the key indicators we have been tracking since our Integral City 2.0 Online Conference is missing (Food) – we think this looks like a promising start with proxies for all the quadrants in place. Moreover, the 20 foundation cities are distributed around the world, so that they will seed the growth of the indicators in different geographies and cultures. (Bogotá, Guadalajara, Boston, Toronto, London, Barcelona, Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Helsinki, Arnman, Dubai, Makkah, Minna, Johannesburg, Haiphong, Shanghai, Makati, Melbourne).

Kudos to the working teams at WCCD and all the cities who have participated!!!

Key information in this blog was gleaned from Meeting of the Minds, webinar on New Urban Indicators for City Services and Quality of Life  http://cityminded.org/cal/new-urban-indicators-city-services-quality-life