It has been a busy fall for the Global Cities Institute (GCI). Part of the John H. Daniels Faculty of Architecture, Landscape, and Design, GCI has received a lot of media attention since the Global Cities Indicators Facility (GCIF), a branch of GCI, announced the development of a new international standard on city metrics last spring. Meanwhile, Director Patricia McCarney and her team have, among other things, been attending conferences, responding to interviews, and developing reports. Below is a roundup of some of GCI’s recent activity.

The City of Toronto received an award from the World Council of City Data for its compliance with the new international standard — ISO 37120. Developed by the Global Cities Indicator Facility (GCIF), this new standard applies to the collection of municipal data, making it possible for cities around the world to measure their performance on service delivery and quality of life. +Read More

On November 17, The Toronto Sun published an article on the first international standard for sustainability cities. “This all came about because of an initiative by Prof. Patricia McCarney of the University of Toronto,” Toronto Deputy Mayor Norm Kelly told The Sun. ”She drove the idea of cities sharing their data and their experiences to help make the world a more liveable place. When you realize that more people live in big cities now than at any other time in history, you know how important that is.” +Read More

The August-September issue of Building magazine features an article by Professor McCarney on the benefits of ISO 37120. Titled "City Metrics for City Building," the article details how the standardized collection of data on indicators of municipal health “can be leveraged by city and business leaders, researchers, planners, designers, and other professionals to build sustainable, inclusive and prosperous cities worldwide.” +Read More

MESHCities wrote about the new international standards for municipal data collection developed by GCIF in an article titled "The University of Toronto's Global Cities Indicators Is Changing the World — Really." “With ISO 37120, policy makers will have the benchmarking tools needed to better understand how their cities perform across a number of key areas.” +Read More

Urban Affairs writer John Lorinc, reporting on the CityAge Conference held in Waterloo in October, wrote about ways regions can “boost innovation and quality of life” to attract entrepreneurs and knowledge workers. Among the initiatives he highlighted was harnessing the power of municipal benchmarking, which has been made easier thanks to the new international standard for municipal data  developed by GCIF. +Read More

Professor McCarney and GCI Senior Fellow Professor Richard Stren have been asked to contribute to the UN-HABITAT World Cities Report 2015. The objectives of this report are to show: how urban areas have changed, emerging urban trends, key urban challenges, progress from the last UN-HABITAT Urban Agenda, and the current urban objectives. This report will be featured and used to inform the upcoming HABITAT III. +Read More

GCI Director Patricia McCarney presented on the Urbanism, Health and the Growth of Megacities: When is More, More? Panel at the Global Health Equity & Innovation Summit, “Creating a Pandemic of Health” on November 4th, 2014. +Read More

::::::::::::::::::::::

For more on the Global Cities Institute, visit: http://www.globalcitiesinstitute.org/