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SESSION DESCRIPTION
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Standardized indicators for resilient cities:
ISO37120 and the World Council on City Data
Panel discussion
Date: Monday, 8 June 2015
Time: 14:30-16:00
Rooms: S30/32
Language:
Contact:
E-mail/web:
Organized by:
English
Matthew Lynch
Matthew.Lynch@globalcities.ca
World Council on City Data
OBJECTIVE
Improving resilience in cities is increasingly a top priority for mayors, city managers, policy makers,
citizens and the private sector. The availability of standardized metrics to evaluate exposure to risk,
emergency preparedness, robustness of infrastructure, the effectiveness of improvement programs and
investments etc. will greatly assist cities to enhance resilience and protect the welfare of their citizens
and communities. Globally-relevant measures will facilitate better information sharing and cooperation
between best practice initiatives at the local level.
The recent publication of ISO 37120 Sustainable Development of Communities – Indicators for City
Services and Quality of Life and the launch of the World Council on City Data (WCCD) provide an
advantageous basis for this standardized indicator platform. ISO 37120 is already being used by cities
to inform their resilience and sustainability planning, with many indicators already provide important
measures of resilience. The International Standards Organization (ISO) has also begun development of
a Resilient Cities standard that will complement the application of ISO 37120 by providing additional
indicators to further support and inform resilience assessment, planning and investment.
The objective of this session is to convene leading cities and other key stakeholders to discuss the
opportunities for building standardized indicators for city resilience through ISO 37120 and a
complementary ISO Resilient Cities Standard.
The session will include case examples of how pioneer WCCD ISO 37120 certified cities are using data
to inform their resilience planning and initiatives. It will highlight the strategic collaboration between
ICLEI and WCCD on standardized indicators for sustainability and resilience, and the recentlyannounced partnership between the WCCD and UNISDR to integrate the ‘Ten Essentials’ into ISO
standards development and to test ISO 37120 with 45 model cities.
Page 1 of 2 - Resilient Cities Congress Secretariat, ICLEI, World Secretariat, Bonn, Germany, Phone: +49-228/976 299 28,
resilient.cities@iclei.org
OUTCOMES
Participants will gain a better understanding of:
 The new ISO 37120 standard and the World Council on City Data;
 The opportunities and challenges of establishing city-level standardized indicators for
resilience;
 How cities are currently using ISO 37120 data to inform their resilience planning and initiatives;
 The opportunities for cities to get involved with the development and testing of the new ISO
Resilient Cities standard.
METHODOLOGY
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The facilitator will open the session with a short introduction of the session and each speaker.
(10 minutes)
Each speaker will be given time for opening remarks (4 x 5 minutes)
The remainder of the session will be organized around the guiding questions, with each
panelist given time to respond to individual questions, and to respond to comments made by
other panelists. (30 minutes)
The facilitator will manage questions and answers from the audience. (25 minutes)
The facilitator will conclude with closing remarks. (5 minutes)
Guiding questions:
1. What are the key opportunities for developing city-level standardized indicators for
resilience? How can a standardized set of indicators like ISO 37120 support major
global resilience initiatives like UNISDR’s ‘Ten Essentials’?
2. Which elements of resilience are difficult or challenging to measure at city-level and/or
to compare between cities?
3. Which specific indicators would be most effective for leading cities to demonstrate their
high-level of resilience to citizens, inward investors etc.?
4. What would the panellists expect to see in a future ISO indicators standard for Resilient
Cities?
CONTRIBUTORS
Facilitator
Matthew Lynch, Vice President – Global Partnerships & Initiatives, World Council on
City Data, Toronto, Canada
Panelist
Nico Tille, Vice President, World Council on City Data; Researcher/Lecturer, Delft
University of Technology; Landscape Architect, City of Rotterdam, The Netherlands
Panelist
Jerry Velasquez, Chief of Advocacy and Outreach Section, United Nations Office for
Disaster Risk Reduction, UNISDR
Panelist
Violeta Somera Seva, Makati City, Philippines (tbc)
Page 2 of 2 - Resilient Cities Congress Secretariat, ICLEI, World Secretariat, Bonn, Germany, Phone: +49-228/976 299 28,
resilient.cities@iclei.org