The Cities Standards Institute

The Cities Standards Institute, a joint initiative of the British Standards Institution (BSI) and the Future Cities Catapult, brings together cities and key industry leaders and innovators to work together in identifying the challenges facing cities, providing solutions to common problems and defining the future of smart city standards. 

We are now looking for additional cities and companies – including SMEs – to join the Cities Standards Institute and help us create a consistent portfolio of smart city standards. Smart cities standards will help drive the future cities market:

  • Shape the best direction for providing solutions to cities needs and ensure that the standards developed for the sector are relevant to the commercial and technical requirements of the businesses involved in developing smart cities.
  • Help shape the market to enable the right conditions for innovation: members will address market barriers as the need arises and will ensure the right engagement is in place at the national and international levels.
  • Jointly prioritize urban problems: city leaders can identify their priority areas of improvement that industry needs to address.
  • Enable the uptake of smart city standards regionally and internationally through leveraging the Future Cities Catapult programme of projects to illustrate the benefit of standards in use and BSI’s membership in ISO and CEN, as well as other international activities.
  • Participate in an extensive set of activities to create an active network of stakeholders working in the smart city space.
  • International focus: Help define the important areas of international activity that the institute should focus on. Many of the current smart city standards are already being considered for adoption in international standards organisations such as ISO, and are being implemented by cities. 

This initiative builds on the robust set of standards developed by BSI (PAS 181, PAS 182, PAS 183, PAS 184, PAS 185, PD 8100 and PD 8101) focused on establishing a common understanding of the benefits of smart cities and the approaches that can be taken to improve city performance. The Future Cities Catapult brings its network of national and international cities and urban innovators to test the implementation of the standards developed and apply them to solve real urban challenges.

The collaboration of Futures Cities Catapult and BSI has produced:

  • PD 8100Smart cities overview. Guide
  • PD 8101 Smart cities. Guide to the role of the planning and development process
  • PAS 181 Smart City Framework – Guide to establishing strategies for smart cities and communities

BSI Smart Cities Portfolio

  • PAS 182 Smart city concept model – Guide to Establishing a Model for Data Interoperability
  • PAS 183 Smart cities – Guide to establishing a decision-making framework for sharing data and information services
  • PAS 184 Smart cities – Guide to Developing project proposals for delivering smart city solutions
  • PAS 185 Smart Cities. Specification for establishing and implementing a security-minded approach
  • Mapping research and modelling for Smart Cities
  • Guidance on the Economic Assessment and Funding of Smart City Initiatives
  • City data survey report - available soon