Overview
ISO/TR 37171:2020 is a technical report from ISO/TC 268/SC 1 that documents results from pilot city testing of ISO smart community infrastructures standards. The report summarizes methods, implementation experience and lessons learned from early pilot cities (for example Chengdu, Nanhai, Hefei, Kawasaki and Cambridge) and explains how pilot testing can verify, refine and promote the practical application of smart city standards.
Key topics and requirements
- Purpose of pilot testing: verify correctness, completeness and implementability of international smart community infrastructure standards through real projects and feed practical results back into standards development.
- Core technical topics:
- Data exchange and data sharing: establishing interoperable, extensible mechanisms for accessing, transferring and archiving urban infrastructure data (terms defined in ISO 37156:2020).
- Smart community infrastructure definition: infrastructure designed, operated and maintained to contribute to sustainable development and community resilience (based on ISO 37100:2016).
- Performance evaluation systems (EVA): guidance for developing local performance indicators and maturity models tailored to city characteristics.
- Lifecycle and project management issues: identification of gaps such as lack of standard reference processes, unclear project logic, weak risk prevention and insufficient consideration of project particularities.
- Pilot program structure and methods:
- Research and analysis to select relevant ISO standards for testing.
- Global pilot selection stages: application, preliminary examination, verification (expert guidance and site inspection) and announcement.
- Pilot implementation steps: standards interpretation/training, needs analysis, and a typical pilot period of about two years.
- Common implementation barriers: fragmented data management, limited data sharing, immature indicator systems in sectors like energy, waste, transport, water and ICT.
Practical applications and users
ISO/TR 37171:2020 is valuable for:
- Municipal governments and city planners implementing smart community projects and performance evaluation systems.
- Standards developers and technical committees seeking empirical feedback on standard applicability.
- Smart city solution providers and integrators designing interoperable systems for data exchange and infrastructure management.
- Consultants, researchers and policy makers assessing maturity, sustainability and resilience of urban infrastructure.
Benefits include improved standard maturity, accelerated adoption of interoperable data platforms, better-aligned local indicators, and lessons for scaling pilot results globally.
Related standards
Keywords: ISO/TR 37171:2020, smart community infrastructures, smart city standards, pilot testing, data exchange, data sharing, performance evaluation, sustainable cities.