Sustainable cities and communities — Descriptive framework for cities and communities

This document specifies a descriptive framework for a city including an associated foundational ontology of the anatomical structure of a city or community. The descriptive framework is intended to have the following qualities: — timeless, i.e. compatible with any human settlement at any time in history; — acultural, i.e. valid for any culture and any type of city; — scalable, i.e. valid for a metropolis, a city, a small town or a village; — generic, so that everything we could define as a "human settlement", such as a "smart city", has a place in this structure.

Développement durable des collectivités — Cadre descriptif pour les villes et les collectivités

General Information

Status
Published
Publication Date
20-Nov-2019
Current Stage
9093 - International Standard confirmed
Start Date
10-Apr-2025
Completion Date
12-Feb-2026

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.

Standard

ISO 37105:2019 - Sustainable cities and communities -- Descriptive framework for cities and communities

English language
54 pages
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Frequently Asked Questions

ISO 37105:2019 is a standard published by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO). Its full title is "Sustainable cities and communities — Descriptive framework for cities and communities". This standard covers: This document specifies a descriptive framework for a city including an associated foundational ontology of the anatomical structure of a city or community. The descriptive framework is intended to have the following qualities: — timeless, i.e. compatible with any human settlement at any time in history; — acultural, i.e. valid for any culture and any type of city; — scalable, i.e. valid for a metropolis, a city, a small town or a village; — generic, so that everything we could define as a "human settlement", such as a "smart city", has a place in this structure.

This document specifies a descriptive framework for a city including an associated foundational ontology of the anatomical structure of a city or community. The descriptive framework is intended to have the following qualities: — timeless, i.e. compatible with any human settlement at any time in history; — acultural, i.e. valid for any culture and any type of city; — scalable, i.e. valid for a metropolis, a city, a small town or a village; — generic, so that everything we could define as a "human settlement", such as a "smart city", has a place in this structure.

ISO 37105:2019 is classified under the following ICS (International Classification for Standards) categories: 13.020.20 - Environmental economics. Sustainability. The ICS classification helps identify the subject area and facilitates finding related standards.

ISO 37105:2019 is available in PDF format for immediate download after purchase. The document can be added to your cart and obtained through the secure checkout process. Digital delivery ensures instant access to the complete standard document.

Standards Content (Sample)


INTERNATIONAL ISO
STANDARD 37105
First edition
2019-11
Sustainable cities and communities —
Descriptive framework for cities and
communities
Développement durable des collectivités — Cadre descriptif pour les
villes et les collectivités
Reference number
©
ISO 2019
© ISO 2019
All rights reserved. Unless otherwise specified, or required in the context of its implementation, no part of this publication may
be reproduced or utilized otherwise in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, or posting
on the internet or an intranet, without prior written permission. Permission can be requested from either ISO at the address
below or ISO’s member body in the country of the requester.
ISO copyright office
CP 401 • Ch. de Blandonnet 8
CH-1214 Vernier, Geneva
Phone: +41 22 749 01 11
Fax: +41 22 749 09 47
Email: copyright@iso.org
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Published in Switzerland
ii © ISO 2019 – All rights reserved

Contents Page
Foreword .iv
Introduction .v
1 Scope . 1
2 Normative references . 1
3 Terms and definitions . 1
4 Descriptive framework of cities and communities . 2
4.1 General description of a city . 2
4.2 Cities as ecosystems . 4
4.3 How the descriptive framework supports governance and transformation . 4
4.4 Basic elements of the descriptive framework for cities and communities . 4
4.4.1 Structure (system). 4
4.4.2 Interactions (system) . 5
4.4.3 Society (system) . 5
4.5 Structure (system) . 5
4.5.1 Environment . 5
4.5.2 Infrastructures . 6
4.5.3 Built domain .12
4.5.4 The three subsystems of the structure .13
4.6 Interactions (system) .13
4.6.1 Introduction .13
4.6.2 Functions .13
4.6.3 Economy .13
4.6.4 Culture .14
4.6.5 Information.14
4.7 Society (system) .15
4.7.1 Introduction .15
4.7.2 Citizens .15
4.7.3 Government .15
5 A foundation ontology for the descriptive framework of cities and communities .15
5.1 The descriptive framework as a basis for the city anatomy ontology (CAO) .15
5.2 Ontologies taxonomies and controlled vocabularies .15
5.3 Descriptive framework city anatomy foundation ontology design principles .16
5.3.1 Introduction .16
5.3.2 Basic competency questions of the descriptive framework foundation CAO .17
5.3.3 Strategic design objectives of the descriptive framework CAO .17
5.3.4 The city as a “system of systems” .18
5.4 Structure system .20
5.4.1 Introduction .20
5.4.2 Environment .21
5.4.3 Infrastructures .21
5.4.4 Built domain .24
5.5 Interactions system .27
5.5.1 Introduction .27
5.5.2 City indicators .30
5.6 Society subsystem .33
5.7 City dynamics as city processes .35
Annex A (informative) Applying the descriptive framework to core organizing activities for
cities: governance, evaluation, and transformation .38
Annex B (informative) Developing guidelines for multipurpose public spaces with
physiological performance described by the descriptive framework .42
Bibliography .54
Foreword
ISO (the International Organization for Standardization) is a worldwide federation of national standards
bodies (ISO member bodies). The work of preparing International Standards is normally carried out
through ISO technical committees. Each member body interested in a subject for which a technical
committee has been established has the right to be represented on that committee. International
organizations, governmental and non-governmental, in liaison with ISO, also take part in the work.
ISO collaborates closely with the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) on all matters of
electrotechnical standardization.
The procedures used to develop this document and those intended for its further maintenance are
described in the ISO/IEC Directives, Part 1. In particular, the different approval criteria needed for the
different types of ISO documents should be noted. This document was drafted in accordance with the
editorial rules of the ISO/IEC Directives, Part 2 (see www .iso .org/ directives).
Attention is drawn to the possibility that some of the elements of this document may be the subject of
patent rights. ISO shall not be held responsible for identifying any or all such patent rights. Details of
any patent rights identified during the development of the document will be in the Introduction and/or
on the ISO list of patent declarations received (see www .iso .org/ patents).
Any trade name used in this document is information given for the convenience of users and does not
constitute an endorsement.
For an explanation of the voluntary nature of standards, the meaning of ISO specific terms and
expressions related to conformity assessment, as well as information about ISO's adherence to the
World Trade Organization (WTO) principles in the Technical Barriers to Trade (TBT), see www .iso .org/
iso/ foreword .html.
This document was prepared by Technical Committee ISO/TC 268, Sustainable cities and communities.
Any feedback or questions on this document should be directed to the user’s national standards body. A
complete listing of these bodies can be found at www .iso .org/ members .html.
iv © ISO 2019 – All rights reserved

Introduction
The descriptive framework for cities and communities detailed in this document helps city and
community stakeholders define a common language to describe cities and communities. This
framework can facilitate the sharing of ideas, data and solutions within, and also between, cities. The
descriptive framework, which can also be referred to as the city anatomy, serves as a basic blueprint to
[4],[5]
facilitate the integration of operating systems and services within a city or community . Ultimately,
the descriptive framework can be the basis of a formal ontology, or knowledge model, which can be
useful for helping to plan and implement city operating solutions, particularly those that might require
digital machine-readable information.
A city or community is a system of systems and interactions that foster and are fostered by emergent
[6]
human behaviour . It can be seen as an arrangement of, and set of relationships between, the multiple
layers of a permanent human settlement, with an administrative and legal status supported by laws
and generally recognized throughout the world. Rather than being static, discreet entities, cities
or communities often have porous and sometimes ambiguous borders (politically, economically,
environmentally and socially) and can thus often be difficult to describe. The structure, interactions and
societal aspects of a city or community are also integral parts of all wider systems extending beyond
the city borders. However, more than half the world’s population now lives in cities or communities
and many of humanity’s chronic challenges are faced in cities or communities. A common descriptive
framework for cities or communities is a useful tool to assist them in sharing knowledge and finding
solutions to issues common to cities or communities all over the world.
Solutions to the issues cities face are intended to improve the quality of life for all city citizens and
follow sustainable development principles. These principles dictate that the solutions to city issues
implemented today do not compromise the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. The
United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UNSDG) issued in 2015 resolve this relatively abstract
[7]
ideal into more tangible objectives. The UNSDG Goal 11 provides these objectives for cities, creating
10 targets for improving the quality of life for citizens and the city’s resiliency, while also limiting the
impact of human activity on the environment. Tools such as ISO standards, for example ISO 37101 and
ISO 37120, help cities plan for, monitor and reach these objectives. The purpose of this document is to
provide a common language for the description of cities that will enable those goals and support the
sharing of city solutions.
The descriptive framework is based on work by the City Protocol Society. It uses an analogy to human
anatomy and its dynamic physiology to describe any city or community, of any size, in a manner that
is timeless, culturally agnostic, scalable and generic. The descriptive framework categorizes the
components of the city into three major elemental systems: a set of physical structures (structure),
the living entities that create a city’s society (society) and the flow of interactions between them
(interactions). These elemental systems are further resolved into, or described by, layers that capture
all the activities of importance to a city, both within and outside the city boundaries, as well as all the
natural and built domain components within a city.
ISO 37100 contains a list of relevant terms and definitions which are also useful in understanding the
descriptive framework.
INTERNATIONAL STANDARD ISO 37105:2019(E)
Sustainable cities and communities — Descriptive
framework for cities and communities
1 Scope
This document specifies a descriptive framework for a city including an associated foundational
ontology of the anatomical structure of a city or community. The descriptive framework is intended to
have the following qualities:
— timeless, i.e. compatible with any human settlement at any time in history;
— acultural, i.e. valid for any culture and any type of city;
— scalable, i.e. valid for a metropolis, a city, a small town or a village;
— generic, so that everything we could define as a “human settlement”, such as a “smart city”, has a
place in this structure.
2 Normative references
The following documents are referred to in the text in such a way that some or all of their content
constitutes requirements of this document. For dated references, only the edition cited applies. For
undated references, the latest edition of the referenced document (including any amendments) applies.
ISO 37100, Sustainable cities and communities — Vocabulary
3 Terms and definitions
For the purposes of this document, the terms and definitions given in ISO 37100 and the following apply.
ISO and IEC maintain terminological databases for use in standardization at the following addresses:
— ISO Online browsing platform: available at https:// www .iso .org/ obp
— IEC Electropedia: available at http:// www .electropedia .org/
3.1
descriptive framework
logical structure that describes how the key entities within a specific domain can be classified so as to
show their relationship with each other
Note 1 to entry: “Entities” refers not only to tangible things, but also to anything important that has a separate
and distinct existence, for instance elemental conventions, principles, practices, strategies, policies, decision-
making structures and accountabilities.
3.2
ontology
specification of concrete or abstract things, and the relationships among them, in a prescribed domain
of knowledge
[SOURCE: ISO/IEC TR 19763-9:2015, 3.1.3, modified — Note removed.]
3.3
urbanism
urban life and environment
4 Descriptive framework of cities and communities
4.1 General description of a city
Figure 1 shows the three overarching logical elements of a city or community ecosystem as the holistic
integration of the physical structure (structure), the people who live in it and occupy this physical space
while carrying out functions (society) and the interactions through which the society engages with the
structure.
2 © ISO 2019 – All rights reserved

Figure 1 — A timeless, culturally agnostic, scalable, generic descriptive framework for any city
or community
4.2 Cities as ecosystems
A city can best be viewed and understood as an ecosystem, broken down into three elements:
1) the physical structure of that ecosystem;
2) the living entities that it contains;
3) the flow of interactions and information.
The descriptive framework offers a common language to describe the city ecosystem as a set of physical
structures, the living entities that make up a city’s society and the flow of interactions between them.
In so doing, it suggests an analogy to the human anatomy and its dynamic physiology.
4.3 How the descriptive framework supports governance and transformation
Ultimately, the descriptive framework aims to help enable effective governance, evaluation and
transformation by providing city officials and other stakeholders with:
— a way to describe their aims and objectives, existing or proposed city initiatives, and services in a
manner that is consistent across cities, vendors, service providers and standards developers;
— a comprehensive checklist of key city aspects and domains.
By providing a framework for describing projects and objectives in a way that is consistent with other
cities, city solution providers and standards organisations will enable them to more easily:
a) identify opportunities and potential areas for innovation and collaboration within or between cities;
b) improve communications between different city service owners and/or operators within the city;
c) communicate their objectives and priorities clearly to citizens and service providers;
d) frame and support emerging processes and citizen demands; and
e) identify the standards that are most relevant to the needs they are seeking to address.
The checklist can help them:
1) review their city in a comprehensive way to evaluate areas of strength and weakness and set
priorities for future action;
2) review potential projects to understand the areas of city life they are likely to impact and the city
stakeholders that need to be consulted or involved; and
3) develop comprehensive sets of evaluation criteria to judge the success of projects.
See Annex A for a more detailed description of applying the descriptive framework for cities: governance,
evaluation and transformation.
4.4 Basic elements of the descriptive framework for cities and communities
4.4.1 Structure (system)
The first layer within the structure system element is the environment, which is the physical and
geographic setting of the city, including the natural environment (“nature”). It is formed by nature
(plant and animals) and by the three basic components – air, earth and water – interacting dynamically
in a seasonally variable way, and increasingly subject to the impacts of climate fluctuations linked
1)
to anthropogenic greenhouse gas pollution. The second layer of the structure system element is
1) Anthropogenic sources are those caused or produced by humans, such as the carbon emitted through power
generation or transport.
4 © ISO 2019 – All rights reserved

infrastructures, the connective structures that enable resource gathering and extraction from the
environment, transporting resources to the city, and the material and energy cycles within the city
itself. These infrastructures include those that support communications, the water and energy cycles, the
matter cycle that supports the movement of goods and food as well as the resultant waste, the mobility
networks, and nature or green infrastructure of the city. The third layer is the built domain, which
can best be organized according to the approximate number of people that it can accommodate on a
physical basis. Thus, within the built domain, an object corresponds to a single person, house, building,
block, neighbourhood, district, city, and metropolis or region, each increasing the scale by an order of
magnitude. Private and public spaces are contained within each level of scale.
4.4.2 Interactions (system)
The first layer within the interactions system element comprises urban functions including living,
working, education, shopping, caring for health, the performing arts and many more. The second layer is
the economy, which influences urban innovation and the everyday operation of the city, as well as the
life cycles of services provided by cities. The third layer is culture – the languages, traditions, beliefs,
values and ways in which people organize their conceptions of the world around them (i.e. the non-
material assets of the city). The fourth and final layer is information. It includes the city operating system
(city OS), city performance indicators and indexes, tools and applications, city ontology and an information
portal for open data and specific learning protocols and related resources.
4.4.3 Society (system)
The society system element is composed of the living entities of the city. The first layer is citizens, which
can be broken down into: person (the individual), family, organizations and businesses. The second layer
is government, whose head is, typically, the mayor.
NOTE The term governance is used when the descriptive framework of a city is used for evaluation purposes.
The term governance is the process of running a government and, as such, it focuses on its effectiveness.
4.5 Structure (system)
4.5.1 Environment
The first subsystem layer within the structure system element of the descriptive framework (see
Figure 1) is the environment, the setting of the city, as shown in Figure 2.
Key
1 gas
Figure 2 — Environment
The environment existed well before the establishment of the city and includes the topography,
morphology, living systems, and natural flows and cycles that form the city’s physical setting. The
environment is nature (plants and animals) and the three basic components – air, soil and water – which
interact dynamically in seasonally variable ways. Each of these components has its own indicators to
assess quality and other characteristics.
Air quality can be assessed by measuring particulate concentration, ozone levels and other chemistry, as
well as CO levels, temperature and other measures related to global warming. The ground topography
(soil) is fundamental for siting a city and serves as an important resource, supporting agriculture, plants
and animals. It is also an important source of minerals and energy. Soil too has physical and chemical
properties, which can be measured. Finally, water cycles through the environment – atmosphere to
surface water to groundwater to oceans. Both water quality and water quantity can be measured in a
number of ways.
These are the components which interact to form the environment layer and are critical in the
functioning of a city.
4.5.2 Infrastructures
4.5.2.1 Introduction
The second subsystem layer within the structure system element is the Infrastructures, the connective
structures that enable resource extraction and use, as well as enabling city life. The infrastructure
layer includes the networks that support communications and mobility, as well as those that support
cycles for water, energy and matter. It also includes the natural – or green – infrastructure that plays an
important role in many communities.
4.5.2.2 Communications network
The first infrastructure depicted in Figure 1 is the communications network shown in detail in
Figure 3. The communications component is composed of all the technologies that carry information,
such as information communication technologies (ICT) (wire and cellular telephone technologies,
radio, television) and the Internet. Centralized models of communication with one emitter and many
receivers (i.e. radio and television) have evolved into a more distributed arrangement of information
with many emitters and many receivers of information (i.e. the Internet). Telecommunications
networks transporting information through copper and/or fibre optic cables, as well as through the
electromagnetic spectrum, are all examples of communication infrastructure.
6 © ISO 2019 – All rights reserved

Key
1 TV
2 Web
3 Internet service provider
Figure 3 — Communications network
4.5.2.3 Water cycle
The second infrastructure is the water cycle component, which includes water supply, treatment and
management of wastewater, surface water runoff and floodwaters (see Figure 4). Cities draw water
2)
from the environment, perform treatment processes and consume it. Grey water and wastewater is
discharged back into receiving bodies, often after treatment, and sometimes recycled directly back into
the community’s own water supply. Water infrastructure describes all of the physical elements that
form the water cycle – from its extraction to its disposal or reuse – and that operate it in a structured
way to serve a city or community.
2) Grey water is wastewater from sinks, baths, washing machines, and other sources that can be used or recycled
for other purposes where potable water is not required, like toilet flushing.
Figure 4 — Water cycle
4.5.2.4 Energy
The third infrastructure is the energy cycle component (see Figure 5), composed of the entire power
system, including functional nodes producing power (e.g. nuclear and fossil fuel power plants, wind
farms, biomass/bioenergy power plants, hydroelectric plants, solar generating plants) often located
outside of the city; the networks needed to transmit electricity or convey fuel – like natural gas – into
the city; as well as other networks of pipelines, ships, rail and trucks needed for the transport of fossil
fuels and chemicals as raw or refined products. In addition, smaller production nodes, like district-level
generating plants, bio-energy systems and steam generation, often operate in cities, as do distributed
energy nodes, like rooftop solar for thermal energy or electricity.
8 © ISO 2019 – All rights reserved

Key
1 biomass
2 H O
Figure 5 — Energy
4.5.2.5 Matter cycle
The fourth infrastructure is the materials or matter cycle (see Figure 6). This infrastructure component
includes the extraction of material resources from nature (including food), their industrial level or
small-scale manipulation to create products, the transportation and logistics infrastructures to reach
consumers and the management of waste materials. Stated another way, the matter cycle includes: (i)
everything involved in the extraction of resources from the environment and the transport of those
resources to factories or production centres; (ii) the distribution of resources and products around
the world enabled by logistics platforms, containers and other means; (iii) deliveries within cities; (iv)
consumption within cities; (v) waste generation; (vi) transport of waste to landfills; and (vii) waste
recycling and/or waste-to-energy production.
Figure 6 depicts two main types of materials: (i) the matter incorporated into consumer goods and
construction materials within the city, shown as a solid line, and (ii) food – both plant-based and
livestock – shown as a dotted line.
Key
1 goods
2 food
Figure 6 — Matter cycle
4.5.2.6 Mobility
The fifth type of Infrastructure is mobility (see Figure 7). Mobility chiefly refers to transportation for
people, though often the same facilities, networks and means of conveyance transport goods as well,
like airports and ports, and other facilities devoted to shipping and logistics. Mobility networks include
large systems, such as railways, airports and highways, as well as road systems, including city streets.
City streets, used by pedestrians, bicyclists, vehicles and public transportation, are not only important
for mobility, but also form an integral part of a city’s public space, which is important for many aspects
of city life.
10 © ISO 2019 – All rights reserved

Figure 7 — Mobility
4.5.2.7 Green infrastructure
The final infrastructure is the green infrastructure (see Figure 8), i.e. the infrastructure provided by
the natural environment. It can be composed of natural elements used in a structured way, like rain
3)
gardens or bioswale , or any other natural element, like trees and open space that has an effect on the
quality of city life.
3) Bioswales are landscape elements designed to concentrate or remove silt and pollution from surface runoff
water.
Figure 8 — Green infrastructure
4.5.3 Built domain
The third component of the city structure system element is the built domain, both public and private, and
the surrounding public space. The built domain has two distinct and essential characteristics in relation
to urbanism: (i) it is the main expression of the material culture of a city, and (ii) it is fundamentally
multi-scale in nature (i.e. scale is an intrinsic characteristic of the built environment), as illustrated in
Figure 9. At the highest level of resolution, the built environment supporting urban functions can be
viewed as objects. Scaling up, the built domain is a collection of objects and the space that contains them.
As illustrated in Figure 9, this scale can be represented as: houses, building, blocks, neighbourhoods,
districts, the city, the metropolis, the country, the continent and ultimately the whole planet.
Figure 9 — Built domain
Objects are also those structures at the smallest scale that can ultimately have their own identity in a
global network of the Internet of things (IoT). Most objects belong to a functional category since they
support one or more functions for human life in cities. In many cases they become part of a larger scale
network made up of other elements and systems (e.g. buildings or the city itself).
The built domain in both Figure 1 and Figure 9 is ordered according to the number of people that each
level of scale approximately relates to on a physical basis, for example 1 object; 10 house; 100 building;
1 000 block; 10 000 neighbourhood; 100 000 district; 1 000 000 city; 10 000 000 metropolis or region.
The built domain determines where the essential functions attached to human life in cities take place,
both publicly and privately. Thus, it is typically buildings like apartments/flats, hospitals, offices and
other places of employment, but it can also be the public space of streets and squares. These public
12 © ISO 2019 – All rights reserved

spaces are also often the rights-of-way through which infrastructure and vehicles pass, and which host
green space. It includes blocks of flats/apartments, hospitals and places of employment. In addition, the
public space can have its own intrinsic value in the city as a space shared by people to meet, relax and
carry out activities, either individually or communally.
Different city models can be identified or defined based upon the scales at which individual needs
are met as they, in turn, determine the associated models for mobility, density and social interaction.
Every node in the built domain has a production and an operational cost, with an economic, social and
environmental impact on its setting and, ultimately, on city finances and efficiency.
4.5.4 The three subsystems of the structure
The three subsystems of the structure – the environment, infrastructures and the built domain – are
the physical remnants of a city that would remain if the people disappeared. The three structure
layers help explain the city as a system of systems and interactions. As depicted in the diagrams, these
networks have connecting lines on which information, energy or material travel and nodes where these
may be processed and/or stored.
The relationship between structure and society is characterized herein as interactions, which is the
second system element considered in the anatomy of Figure 1.
4.6 Interactions (system)
4.6.1 Introduction
The second system element considered in the descriptive framework is interactions. The interactions
between the structure and society effectively reflect the activities in the city and can be analysed and
measured as flows of information.
Interactions includes four subsystem layers: (i) functions, (ii) economy, (iii) culture and (iv) information.
4.6.2 Functions
Functions include living, working, education, shopping, caring for health, the performing arts, tourism
(business and personal) and many more. The built domain, including public space, typically hosts most
of these functions, though this subsystem layer is concerned with the activities themselves and not the
buildings that play host to them. This is an important distinction because some of these Functions, like
education and shopping, can be delivered via the Internet and may no longer be confined to specific
buildings or facilities. However, Functions, many of which are supported by the city, generally emerge
from the interaction between the people in the city and different parts of the built domain.
4.6.3 Economy
Wealth production and distribution, commerce and trade, innovation and entrepreneurial ecosystems,
competitiveness, tax base and financing vehicles are among the many dimensions that create the
economy of a city, the second subsystem of the interactions system element. The economy plays a
critical role in any city, impacting quality of life and the level of support for city services.
The economy, at both the micro- and macro-economic scales, operates via an increasingly rapid rate of
information exchange between people, institutions, companies, and economic and financial agencies.
This is particularly true in cities, which today are responsible for generating most of the world’s GDP.
The economy influences urban innovation, as well as everyday city operations and life cycles of services
provided by cities. It is also a key element in the evolution of cities, determining the feasibility of
transformational projects to increase the quality of life for residents.
4.6.4 Culture
Culture encompasses the languages, traditions, beliefs, values and other non-material assets
that comprise parts of the city’s identity. It also includes the tacit knowledge that builds shared
understanding and trust among people in a given community that can become explicit practices,
expressions, representations, knowledge, skills and organizational behaviours. Culture impacts and
reflects all dimensions of human life – emotion, intelligence, spirituality, creativity and community.
4.6.5 Information
The conceptual model of a city as a system of systems and interactions at different scales of time and
space implies the inclusion in the framework of an informational or systems platform, depicted in
Figure 10. This platform has the following five functional elements:
— city ontology, or knowledge model, which is the lexicon, syntax, and semantics needed to promote
the interoperability and proper integration of city models, bringing together all the structural
elements of the anatomy, along with the time and spatial reasoning coupled with the information
systems that are involved in the formulation, generation and evaluation of urban planning, design,
and transformation;
— city operating system (city OS) that functions as a shared – or trans-disciplinary – set of tools to
manage and organize the city as a system of systems for all city activities by defining protocols that
standardize methods for improving knowledge acquisition and information transfer (i.e. data flows);
— city performance indicators and indexes that include broad performance categories, such as
resilience, self-sufficiency, habitability, welfare and economic empowerment, and that also consider
qualitative information in an evaluation framework defined for assessment purposes, for example
ISO 37120;
— tools and applications for system-level data analysis and representation/visualization, decision
support, management actions, and data privacy and security actions; and
— information portal for open data and specific learning protocols and related resources, including
information on both hard and soft systems, and on the many different mechanisms by which cities
acquire and apply knowledge.
Figure 10 — Information platform
Many cities today are adopting and implementing information platforms to integrate all of the
information flows that move data through interconnected and integrated layers of systems and
subsystems that form the anatomy in Figure 1. These flows pass through specific domains like mobility,
water, energy or others.
Cities can have multiple information systems. For example, there may be a system to collect different
types of data in real time, which may be separate from the data generated by the administration of the
city or generated by city residents and businesses. These streams of data can be connected to a platform
for integration and processing. This set of basic data collection and processing systems is the basis of
what the framework refers to as the operating system of the city, or the city OS (see Figure 10). As cities
collect more information, applications can be designed and implemented to manage systems within the
city. Cities can create open data platforms, enabling greater engagement in city life and governance by
the public, and potentially accelerating innovation.
The city performance indicators enable evaluation and transformation, sometimes in real time, or
through city governance or other processes. The performance indicators (like the ISO 37120 indicators)
14 © ISO 2019 – All rights reserved

are key to the larger concepts like resilience, sustainability, attractiveness, well-being and social
equity, enabling evaluation of how well the city works or is meeting the UNSDGs, and other objectives
determined through a sustainable development management system like ISO 37101 or other tools.
Performance indicators also facilitate learning from past efforts to promote change within a city as well
as efforts made in other cities to address challenges. In both cases, the framework provides a common
frame of reference.
4.7 Society (system)
4.7.1 Introduction
The third city system element is society, including citizens and government.
4.7.2 Citizens
Citizens include the individual (or person), family, organizations and businesses. The term person is
applied broadly, and includes individuals who live in, work in and/or visit a city, whether or not they
are permanent or legal residents. Visitors are identified in Figure 1 as a cluster of individuals that cross
city borders as a flow of people. Beyond individuals, citizens includes the many ways people organize
themselves (e.g. into clubs), work and do business (e.g. in corporations, small businesses or other
entities).
NOTE The term 'person' could also be extended to include pets or domestic animals.
4.7.3 Government
Government is the part of society that is elected or appointed to serve the community. It includes the
decision makers, as well as the personnel and apparatus that carry out the will of the decision makers
and city operations.
NOTE The process of running a government, governance, is used for evaluation purposes in this document.
5 A foundation ontology for the descriptive framework of cities and
communities
5.1 The descriptive framework as a basis for the city anatomy ontology (CAO)
In addition to the uses of the descriptive framework described in 4.3, it can also be used as the basis of
an ontology, as described in this clause. The ontology provides a machine-readable representation of
the concepts and properties that underlie the city anatomy framework. It serves several functions:
— It elaborates and clarifies the framework by providing a more precise description of the concepts that
appear in the framework, enabling a clearer and more complete interpretation of the framework.
— It provides a data model that cities can use to represent and reason about the anatomy of their
city. The data model can be used for planning and operational purposes, and it enhances the
interoperability of data among city departments.
— It provides the means of operationalizing framework-based design of cities and communities with
the information infrastructure that underlies city operations.
5.2 Ontologies taxonomies and controlled vocabularies
An ontology is commonly referred to as “a formal, explicit specification of a shared conceptualization.”
In this context, the term conceptualization refers to the development of an abstract model of some
phenomenon in the world by having identified its relevant concepts. Explicit means that the type of
concepts identified, and the constraints of their use, are explicitly defined. Formal refers to the fact
ISO 37105:20
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