Gdańsk with ISO 37120 certificate, which is granted to the cities with exceptionally high quality of life.
How many new residents came to Gdańsk? How many cycling routes are there in the city? How many kilometres does the system of municipal transportation have? How many trees are planted annually? How many firemen fall for 100 thousand residents? This and many other indicators were checked by external auditors from the Polish Register of Shipping and then Gdańsk was granted ISO 37120 certificate; as one of the first cities in Poland!
Deputy President of Gdańsk – Aleksandra Dulkiewicz – during a press conference on Thursday, September 21, emphasised that Gdańsk is the first city in Poland, which was granted ISO 37120 certificate in accordance with all basic indicators. She also pointed out that this norm makes it possible to compare, for example, quality of life in Gdańsk and other cities.
Deputy Director of the Economic Policy Unit – Katarzyna Drozd-Wiśniewska – pointed out that ISO 37120 certificate, so called “smart city”, means primarily that the city monitors residents’ quality of life and the quality of urban services in several indicated areas. “It allows us to build confidence in the city” – she added.
The norm was published in 2014 by the International Organisation for Standardisation in Poland, last year it was issued by the Polish Committee for Standardisation under the title “Sustainable social development. Urban services indicators and the quality of life”. To be granted a certificate of compliance with ISO 37120 norm you need to give values of 100 of urban services indicators (according to 17 thematic areas), including 46 basic (mandatory) and 54 auxiliary (facultative). Gdańsk gave the values of as many as 87 indicators.
Thematic areas concern all major fields of city’s functioning, for example health, education, communication, environment, active citizenship, energy. The certificate gives the opportunity to compare Gdańsk with other awarded cities in the world because all of them calculate indicators on the basis of the same guidelines. In the scope of transport, you should indicate, for example, the length of cycling routes or the system of municipal transportation.
Drozd-Wiśniewska indicated that in comparison with more than 40 cities, Gdańsk occupies the sixth place in terms of the length of urban transport system, with its 236 kilometres per 100 thousand residents. In terms of the number of trees planted every year per 100 thousand inhabitants Gdańsk occupies 12th place (more than one and a half thousand trees). In terms of water consumption per person in a household, the city occupies the 9th place (104 litres per day) out of 45 cities.
Lead Auditor of the Polish Register of Shipping – Michał Gałecki – explained that “the norm tries to make it possible for cities to compare themselves”. “Until today, different methodologies of counting successes of cities functioned, for example in the scope of environmental protection, transport and other areas. Every city counted them in such a way, to show that their result is the best” – he added.
Due to the fact that ISO 37120 norm was published relatively recently, there is no global unit, which would gather information on how many cities are interested in it. However, we know that about 40 cities took up this challenge and published the results authorised by external units. Michał Gałecki informed, for example, about the fact that in Europe there are 15 cities which implemented the certificate, like London, Paris and Berlin.
In Gdańsk, 13 indicators were not calculated (non-mandatory ones), for example an indicator concerning recreational, public and commercial areas per one resident or the average number of hours of breaks in water delivery per a household. “We will be trying to reach one hundred indicators and we will be studying them successively” – declared Drozd-Wiśniewska.
Check ISO 37120 norm’s indicators in Gdańsk
See the presentation of the City of Gdańsk
