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UK becomes first country to develop smart cities standards

05 March 2014

by Richard Forster

BSI, the business standards company has published new guidance to help support UK cities in becoming smarter. In the UK alone, 8 out of 10 people now live in cities, and as they become more complex, BSI believes, an intelligent standardised structure for using and sharing existing data and resources, becomes necessary.

The UK BIS (Department for Innovations & Skills) has worked with BSI to develop and launch an agenda around the smart city standards. The Publicly Available Specifications PAS 180 and PAS 181, address the standardisation gaps in the smart city market by providing a guidance framework and common language.

“Smart Cities need Standards,” said Scott Steedman, Director of Standards at BSI. “The UK leads the world in shaping business standards. If we are to make the most of the global opportunities from smart cities, we need to work fast to structure the knowledge that can help city leaders, communities, innovators and technology providers recognise what good looks like and how these concepts can bring benefits for all. I’m delighted that the UK is the first country to publish a set of standards that will help us navigate the governance and leadership challenges that smart technologies bring for cities everywhere.”

The PAS 180 Smart Cities Vocabulary was developed to improve communication and understanding of the smart cities field by providing a tool to ensure developers, designers, manufacturers and clients use a common language when talking about smart cities helping the industry to work more efficiently and effectively. It is the first version of a ‘smart cities vocabulary’ that aims to provide an agreed set of working terms to enable practitioners to better share a common understanding.

The PAS 181 Smart City Framework was developed to guide decision-makers and assist them to develop, agree and deliver smart city strategies that can transform cities’ ability to meet future challenges and deliver future aspirations.

BSI says that the framework does not describe a one-size-fits-all model for the future of UK cities but focuses on the enabling processes by which innovative use of technology and data coupled with organisational change, can help deliver the diverse visions for future UK cities in more efficient, effective and sustainable ways.

“There is huge potential for the UK to be the world leader in smart cities and to achieve a strategic advantage for UK cities and industry as international markets develop,” added David Willets, Universities and Science Minister. “Industry standards are key to achieving world leadership status for the UK and hence I welcome the publications of the first two BSI smart city standards. These standards will help to address barriers to implementing smart city concepts and promote uptake of smart city solutions at scale.”

Some of the organisations involved in the development of PAS 180 include: Department of Architecture, Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS), Cambridge University and University of Westminster. Some of the organisations involved in the development of PAS 181 include: Balfour Beatty, Birmingham City Council. BRE, Fujitsu, Future Cities Catapult, IBM, Leeds City Council, Royal Borough of Greenwich and The Technology Strategy Board.

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