Overview - What ISO 37105:2019 covers
ISO 37105:2019, "Sustainable cities and communities - Descriptive framework for cities and communities", defines a descriptive framework (also called the city anatomy) and an associated foundational ontology for describing any human settlement. The standard is intentionally timeless, acultural, scalable and generic, so it can be applied to metropolises, towns, villages or emerging concepts such as a smart city. ISO 37105 provides a common language and logical structure to describe the physical, social and interactional aspects of an urban ecosystem and to support governance, evaluation and digital integration.
Key technical topics and requirements
- Three elemental systems: Structure, Interactions, and Society - the core anatomy of a city.
- Structure covers environment, infrastructures, and the built domain.
- Interactions include functions, economy, culture, information and city indicators.
- Society addresses citizens, government, and social dynamics.
- Specification of a foundational city ontology (City Anatomy Ontology, CAO) to enable machine‑readable descriptions, taxonomies and controlled vocabularies.
- Design principles for ontologies, including competency questions, strategic objectives and a “system of systems” perspective.
- Treatment of city dynamics (processes), and the use of the framework to support governance, transformation and performance evaluation.
- Informative annexes illustrate application to governance, multipurpose public spaces and physiological performance.
Practical applications and users
ISO 37105 is practical for organizations that need a consistent, interoperable model of cities:
- City planners, urban designers and local governments - for policy, planning and governance frameworks.
- Smart city program managers and system integrators - to align data models, sensors and operating systems using the CAO.
- GIS, data scientists and digital twins teams - for machine-readable ontologies, semantic interoperability and city indicators.
- Standards bodies, researchers and consultants - to harmonize vocabularies and enable cross-city comparisons.
Practical uses include creating shared data models, integrating city services, benchmarking sustainability indicators, and supporting decision-making for urban transformation.
Related standards
- ISO 37100 - Vocabulary for sustainable cities and communities (referenced by ISO 37105).
- ISO 37101 - Management systems for sustainable development of communities.
- ISO 37120 - Indicators for city services and quality of life.
These complementary standards support consistent terminology, management practice and performance measurement.
ISO 37105:2019 is a foundational resource for anyone implementing interoperable, sustainable and data-driven urban solutions.