Overview
ISO 37156:2020 - Smart community infrastructures - Guidelines on data exchange and sharing for smart community infrastructures - provides a framework and practical principles for exchanging and sharing data among entities that develop and operate community infrastructure. Applicable to communities of any size, the standard addresses how to structure, govern and secure infrastructure data (energy, water, transport, waste, ICT) to reduce silos, improve service delivery and support sustainable, resilient communities in line with ISO 37100.
Key Topics
The standard focuses on actionable technical and governance topics including:
- Principles and framework for data exchange and sharing across organizations and community infrastructure domains.
- Types of data: metadata, reference data and thematic data to support interoperability and reuse.
- Concept model and data dictionary: guidance for defining a common data model, catalogues and terminologies to enable consistent data exchange.
- Data spectrum: classification of data as closed, shared or open, with implications for access, licensing and governance.
- Security of data exchange: risk assessment, security strategy, policy development and accountability for protecting infrastructure data.
- Data privacy: privacy principles, stakeholder considerations, operational guidelines and governance for individual rights and complaints.
- Roles and responsibilities: defining data roles, provenance, accountability and emerging business models for cooperative data ecosystems.
- Opportunities & case studies: examples (Annex A) showing practical benefits such as optimized services, proactive maintenance and environmental protection.
Applications
ISO 37156 is practical for organizations aiming to operationalize smart community data initiatives:
- Local and national government agencies and city administrations developing data-sharing policies and digital infrastructure.
- Utility operators (energy, water, transport, waste) and infrastructure managers improving interoperability and maintenance workflows.
- Urban planners and smart city program managers using shared data for planning, resilience and sustainability objectives.
- ICT and data platform providers, system integrators and solution vendors implementing data catalogues, APIs and security/privacy controls.
- Data stewards and privacy officers establishing governance, accountability and compliance processes.
Benefits include reduced information silos, improved cross-department collaboration, enhanced service delivery, and support for sustainable development goals.
Related Standards
ISO 37156 should be used alongside:
ISO 37156 is a guideline-style standard that helps practitioners implement secure, privacy-aware and interoperable data exchange for smart community infrastructures.
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