Developed with the contribution of Bright Cities, the ISO 37122 helps Brazilian cities to improve the performance of urban services and people’s quality of life
Smart Cities are gaining more and more popularity in Brazil, and proof of this is that cities from the country can now count on a new tool to improve the urban management: the technical standard ISO 37122: 2020 – Sustainable cities and communities – Indicators for smart cities.
Although the standart already exists in other parts of the globe, it was finally translated and adapted to the Brazilian reality with the contribution of Bright Cities. The document has the important function of pointing out the indicators that cities must consider and evaluate in order to become more sustainable, resilient, efficient – and, that way, smart. It is through these indicators that the diagnosis of an urban performance can be made, making use of precise numbers and data to discover the quality of public services.
When having access to the standard and the data required by the indicators, cities are able to follow, in a long term, the progress of their policies, the real impacts on residents and the points to be improved in urban planning. In other words: in addition to being important for the current diagnosis of cities, technical standards are also indispensable for the search for a better future.
Hence the importance of ISO 37122: 2020, which specifies and establishes methodologies for a set of Smart Cities indicators. According to the definition included in the standard, a smart city is the one that “increases the pace at which it delivers results of social, economic and environmental sustainability and that responds to challenges such as climate change, rapid population growth and political and economic instabilities, improving the way it engages society, among other positive impacts“.
In other words, the main objective of the new technical standard, as well as of the smart city, is to guarantee quality of life. It is no coincidence that the document covers a series of issues focused on life in cities – there are 19 areas covered in the text! They are: local and urban agriculture, water, economy, education, energy, sewage, sport and culture, finance, governance, housing, environment, urban planning, population and social conditions, waste, health, safety and recreation, telecommunications and transportation.
And as in any smart city, technology is essential to ensure efficient, fast and affordable services in each of these areas. For this reason, what the technical standard does is precisely to reconcile and guide the use of technologies with the needs of the city to ensure the well-being of its residents. More than tools for public management, the indicators consider their impacts on the citizen.
Altogether, 80 indicators are included in ISO 37122: 2020, such as:
- Percentage of urban services that can be ordered online;
- Percentage of public recreation services that can be booked online;
- Number of online reservations for cultural facilities per 100 thousand inhabitants;
- Percentage of payments in the city made by electronic means;
Despite the complexity of its parameters, focused on the performance of technologies, the standard offers a valuable understanding of those that will be the most important indicators of the future, as a guide for the smart cities of tomorrow!
Its publication in Brazil could not come at a better time, since municipal elections in the country will soon begin. In determining concepts and ensuring even more theoretical and practical tools for public managers, the standard wants to encourage a sustainable and resilient transformation of our urban centers.
Another point that reinforces their importance of technical standarts is its standardization: approved by ISO, the international standardization organization, they guarantee that Brazilian cities are part of a global dialogue. Thus, the data obtained with the indicators can be analyzed in relation to any other municipalities in the world, allowing managers to learn from policies that have already proven to be efficient elsewhere.
It is also worth remembering that ISO technical standards are aligned with the UN’s 17 Sustainable Development Goals, guiding cities to adopt positive goals for the future of the planet and people.
It is clear that the adoption of technical standards always respects the particularities of each municipality, and for this reason they must always be used keeping in mind the urban context where it will be applied. It is up to the city, therefore, to understand its needs and create its own strategies according to the standards – and this is where Bright Cities‘ work comes in!
Our platform knows which indicators are included in the ISO technical standards and automatically captures the data related to them. We do all the work: we collect the data and give the public managers a diagnosis that shows, in real time, the real performance of a city in relation to the guidelines established by ISO. Want to find out if your city has a good result in relation to ISO 37122: 2020? Know the standard.
As one of the collaborators in the translation and adaptation of ISO 37122: 2020, all indicators of this and other technical standards for smart cities have already been included in our platform. Do you want to find out how your city is performing in terms of standards and how to align it with the most important international guidelines?
All of these Smart Cities standards used on our platform are the result of a global consensus, developed precisely to assess the impact of public management on citizens. Although their use is not mandatory, we believe they are important guides for improving public policies and future private initiatives. In addition to providing valuable information to demystify the concept of smart cities in Brazil and in the world, they also encourage the adoption of innovative technologies, capable of improving people’s quality of life!
Bright Cities is a disruptive platform for diagnosing your city’s roadmap so that it becomes smarter every day. Discover our platform and find out how your city can align with these international standards. Upgrade your city!
