Smart cities body releases guideline

A gathering of smart cities leaders in Sydney today saw the release of a guideline to help drive greater opportunities for smart cities investment.

Smart Cities Council Australia New Zealand (SCCANZ) convened a roundtable of government, private sector and industry representatives along with standards bodies to discuss and identify opportunities for ensuring smart cities standards play a necessary role in catalysing and scaling solutions to advance sustainability through technology, data and digital transformation.

Adam Beck, executive director of SCCANZ, acknowledged the importance of standards and frameworks to help build a thriving smart cities market in Australia, claiming that many smart cities efforts were being advanced with little or no structure to their approach — or with acknowledgement of the core principles for smart cities success, such as interoperability.

“We have an opportunity in Australia to embrace the rich ecosystem of smart cities standards and frameworks available throughout the world, and ensure we create a common understanding and shared purpose when applying technology and data solutions in our cities and towns,” Beck said.

“It is fundamental that we at least acknowledge the support that is available through these resources and be open to applying them, at least in a voluntary way.”

At the roundtable, SCCANZ released a guidance note that provides foundational information on global smart cities standards and frameworks.

The note, prepared in collaboration with Professional Construction Strategies Group (PCSG), one of SCCANZ’s member companies, provides an overview of the value of smart cities standards and presents a catalogue of strategic, process and technical-based smart cities standards and frameworks.

“Our goal is to provide readily available information to government and industry on the diverse library of smart cities standards and frameworks around the world,” said Gavin Cotterill, PCSG’s consulting director for Asia Pacific.

“Experience from mature smart cities markets such as the UK, and more broadly Europe, show that when government and industry work closely together on creating, applying and promoting standardisation, market opportunities are created and outcomes are aligned with a shared vision,” he added.

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