ISO 22371:2024 PDF

Overview

ISO 22371:2024 - Security and resilience - Community resilience - Principles, framework and guidelines on urban resilience - provides a structured, practical approach to strengthen urban resilience across communities, services and infrastructure. The standard explains how to build capacity to anticipate, prepare for, respond to and recover from disruptive events while protecting vulnerable people and improving residents’ quality of life. It is applicable to all urban contexts, governance structures and identified risk levels and is intended for any organization accountable for resilience of urban services.

Key topics and technical requirements

ISO 22371 defines a principles-based urban resilience framework and provides guidance on how to organize, assess, plan, implement and continually improve resilience efforts. Major technical topics include:

• Principles for urban resilience - foundational concepts such as inclusivity, adaptation, prevention and whole-of-society approaches.
• Governance, leadership and policy - establishing commitment, governance structures and an urban resilience policy.
• Vision, objectives and benefits - setting measurable resilience objectives and articulating social, economic and service continuity benefits.
• Stakeholder mapping and community engagement - identification, communication and outreach strategies to include vulnerable groups.
• Data, assessment and system mapping - data collection, system definition, interdependency analysis and baseline resilience assessment.
• Risk identification and prioritization - risk assessment, gap analysis, scenario planning and urban resilience testing.
• Strategy development and treatment options - risk appetite, adaptation pathways, initiative development and prioritization (including cost/benefit considerations).
• Implementation and financing - programme/project management, procurement, partnerships, business cases and financing mechanisms.
• Monitoring and continual improvement - real‑time situational awareness, performance monitoring, horizon scanning, learning and re-measurement.

These topics are arranged to support a lifecycle approach: Organize → Assess → Strategy → Implement → Continual improvement.

Practical applications

ISO 22371 is practical guidance for:

• Municipal governments and city administrations designing resilience strategies.
• Urban planners and infrastructure operators assessing system interdependencies.
• Emergency management and public health agencies coordinating preparedness and response.
• Utilities, transport authorities and private-sector service providers ensuring continuity of critical services.
• NGOs, community groups and investors aligning projects with resilience objectives.

Typical uses include creating urban resilience policies, conducting system baseline assessments, prioritizing resilience projects, developing business cases for resilience investment, and establishing monitoring frameworks.

Benefits

Implementing ISO 22371 helps reduce social and economic impacts of shocks, protect vulnerable populations, strengthen service continuity, support sustainable urban development and attract investment by demonstrating robust resilience planning.

Related standards

ISO 22371 was developed by ISO/TC 292 (Security and resilience). Organizations should consider this document alongside other ISO guidance on community resilience, business continuity and risk management when designing integrated resilience programs.