New guidelines designed to provide a framework for data sharing in smart cities have been published as a British standard by BSI.

Smart city projects may be implemented by local authorities, universities, transport operators, utility providers or other organisations. Projects range from the small-scale use of technology to optimise an isolated process such as smart river sensors that monitor and help predict when flooding may occur, to city-wide data collection networks for the operation of public services.

Developed at the request of the Cities Standards Institute in part to support a transparent approach to making decisions, the standard offers guidelines to establish data sharing arrangements.

In the UK, smart city projects currently exist in Glasgow, Belfast, Birmingham, Bristol, Hull, Manchester, Milton Keynes, London and Peterborough.

Scott Steedman, director-general, Standards, BSI said: “Smart cities use technology to enhance people’s lives and contribute to better outcomes for sustainability by exploiting data and information from official sources and sensors in buildings, transportation and public services, monitoring the weather, security cameras, traffic jams and so on. The new guidelines set out in this international standard from ISO/IEC mitigate the risks associated with missing or misinterpreted data, supporting better-informed decision making by the civic authorities.

“By providing a robust framework for data sharing in smart cities, we can not only empower decision-makers, but also accelerate urban development towards a more sustainable and prosperous future.”

BSI's Guide to establishing a decision-making framework for sharing data and information services (BS ISO IEC 17917) is the international adoption of Smart Cities: Guide to establishing a decision-making framework for sharing data and information services (PAS 183:2017).

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