New Progress for ISO Standards on Sustainable Cities

From 13 to 16 June 2023, the spring plenary of ISO/TC 268 was held in France. Over 100 delegates from China, France, Germany, UK, Italy, Brazil, Japan, Portugal, Russia, Iran, Kenya, Morocco and other countries attended. Four standards led by China, ISO 37111 Sustainable cities and communities − Urban districts, towns, counties and neighbourhoods − Guidelines for flexible approaches to phased implementation of ISO 37101, ISO 37115 Best Practice for Net-Zero Carbon City, ISO 37113 Sustainable Cities and Communities — Management guidelines for public health emergency response in smart city operating models and ISO 37114 Sustainable cities and communities — Appraisal framework for datasets and data processing methods that create urban management information, have successfully entered the next stage.

During the meeting, Mr. Dong Shanfeng, senior expert of ISSCC and President of Yudao Group, was nominated as the convenor of the Working Group on City anatomy and sustainability terms (WG3), which will be responsible for the revision of ISO 37100 Sustainable cities and communities — Vocabulary.

At the plenary session of ISO/TC268, a PWI ballot was launched for Harbour cities standard proposed by China, which has received a lot of interest from experts, especially from European countries, who have expressed the great significance and value of the standard. The standard will be developed to promote the sustainable development of all types of habour cities.

ISO 37111 is the first ISO standard in the field of sustainable development of cities and communities to be independently developed by China. The standard contributes to the achievement of the SDGs by helping small and medium-sized cities and towns around the world to choose different flexible methods for implementing and building ISO 37101 sustainable development management systems in phases, either at the start-up stage or when they are just beginning to build their sustainable development management systems, ultimately realising the visionary goals of ISO 37101.

After three years of preparation and more than ten rounds of international and national meetings since 2018, the standard has gained the support of countries from all continents, including the UK, Russia, Canada, Australia, Belgium, Brazil, India, Malaysia, Kenya, Nigeria, Rwanda, Uganda and other countries along the "Belt and Road". The standard is expected to be published in 2024, with the project completed in May 2021.

Sino-Singapore Tianjin Eco-city, as one of the ISSCC initiave members, has incorporated its more than 10 years of experience in indicator systems and sustainable construction into the standard. The co-leader of the ISO 37111 project in Tianjin Eco-city gave a detailed presentation on the application of the standard in Tianjin Eco-city, which attracted much discussion and interest from the experts present. The standard is important for promoting sustainable urban development cases in China and sharing China's experience to the world.

Initiated by China, ISO/TR37115 is the first ISO standard focusing on urban carbon neutrality and was due for PWI in April 2022. At this meeting, Chinese expert Mr. Meng Fanqi presented the progress of this Chinese proposal. The meeting resolved to launch an eight-week ballot for the establishment of the project, with a clear title and scope. According to UN data, human-inhabited cities and communities account for only 2% of the global land area, yet produce 70% of greenhouse gas emissions. The standard will summarise the global experience of net-zero urban management and technology practices and provide the world with implementable and reproducible best practices for standardized carbon neutral cities.

ISO 37114 is a collaborative program between the UK and China, which passed the PWI ballot in September 2020 and was formally established in June 2022. ISO 37114 builds a data-processing-indicator framework that provides the data assessment methods needed to generate management information in organisations, to be compatible with artificial intelligence and to enable machine-readable, intelligent management of data for sustainable development. It provides a methodology for the assessment of data needed to generate management information in organisations, is compatible with artificial intelligence and enables machine-readable data, intelligent management, data collection, management and mining guided by sustainable development goals, facilitates open sharing, supports urban management and scientific decision-making, and forms an urban big data asset. The pilot cities of Tianjin and Chengdu presented the trials of ISO 37114. The standard will close for CD consultation on 28 July, when more expert comments will be collected to prepare for the next stage of standard refinement.

At the ISO/TC268/WG1 meeting, ISSCC member Wuhan East Lake Hi-tech Zone presented the progress and implementation experience of ISO 37101, providing further support for the subsequent revision of ISO 37101. The ISO/TC268 Scientific Committee on Sustainability Standards presented the pilot cases of 17 cities in China and other countries The implementation status of various cities in China, including the Sino-Singapore Tianjin Eco-city, Beijing Future Science City, Hangzhou CBD, Wuhan East Lake Hi-tech Zone, etc. These pilots have been recognised by international experts.