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| ISO 22320 | |
|---|---|
| Standard | ISO 22320 |
| Title | ISO 22320:2011 |
| Organization | International Organization for Standardization |
| Status | Published |
| First published | 2011 |
| Topic | Emergency management — Requirements for incident response |
ISO 22320
ISO 22320 is an international standard specifying requirements for incident response and emergency management to enhance preparedness and resilience. It provides guidance for organizations and authorities to coordinate operations, information sharing, and decision-making during incidents involving public safety, critical infrastructure, or societal disruption. The standard is intended for use by emergency services, civil protection agencies, and organizations responsible for continuity and crisis response across sectors.
ISO 22320 defines a common framework for command, control, coordination, and communication during incidents to improve interoperability among responders. It addresses operational concepts familiar to United Nations, NATO, World Health Organization, European Commission, and national civil protection agencies such as FEMA, Public Health England, Australian Emergency Management Institute, Swiss Federal Office for Civil Protection, Japan Disaster Management, and Red Cross societies. The standard aligns with emergency concepts used in Geneva Conventions contexts, mass-casualty frameworks like Haiti earthquake (2010), pandemic responses exemplified by COVID-19 pandemic, and multi-agency operations like Hurricane Katrina relief.
ISO 22320 sets out requirements for incident response structures, processes, and information flows to enable effective coordination among responders and stakeholders such as police forces (e.g., Metropolitan Police Service), fire brigades (e.g., London Fire Brigade), and ambulance services (e.g., NHS). It aims to support interoperability in contexts involving critical infrastructure operators like National Grid (Great Britain), Deutsche Bahn, and Port of Rotterdam, and regulatory bodies including European Union Agency for Cybersecurity and national ministries such as UK Cabinet Office, United States Department of Homeland Security, and Ministry of Internal Affairs (Japan). The purpose includes improving situational awareness, resource allocation, and timely decision-making during incidents similar to 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami or complex events like 2015 Paris attacks.
The standard is organized into clauses covering command structures, incident management processes, information management, and communication requirements, reflecting concepts used by Incident Command System variants, Civil Protection doctrines, and multinational operations like those coordinated by United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. Key requirements include establishment of an incident management system, defined roles and responsibilities (as with Gold–Silver–Bronze tactical command models), common terminology (parallel to NATO Standardization Office vocabularies), procedures for information collection and validation, and mechanisms for coordination across jurisdictions such as those used in European Civil Protection Mechanism. It prescribes recording and reporting practices analogous to after-action reviews conducted by US GAO and audit processes used by International Organization for Standardization committees.
Organizations implement ISO 22320 through adaptation of their command and control arrangements, training, exercises, and integration with operational guidance from agencies like FEMA and Civil Contingencies Secretariat (UK). Use cases include emergency operations centres operated by municipal authorities such as New York City Office of Emergency Management, multinational exercises like Exercise Trident Juncture, and sector-specific plans for energy companies and transport operators such as Airbus and Maersk. Implementation typically involves stakeholder mapping, development of incident management plans, interoperability testing with partners including European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control and World Meteorological Organization, and incorporation into continuity programs promoted by entities like Business Continuity Institute.
ISO 22320 complements and interoperates with related standards and frameworks including ISO 22301 (business continuity management), ISO 22398 (guidelines for exercises), ISO 31000 (risk management concepts), and sector standards used by organizations such as International Air Transport Association and International Maritime Organization. It is often implemented alongside assessment schemes and methodologies from NFPA publications, IEC standards for systems integration, and cybersecurity frameworks promoted by NIST and ENISA to ensure comprehensive resilience across domains like telecommunications providers and healthcare institutions.
While ISO 22320 itself is not a certifiable management system standard in the same way as ISO 9001 or ISO 14001, organizations seek third-party assurance and alignment by demonstrating conformance during audits, peer reviews, and exercise evaluations performed by national accreditation bodies such as UKAS and agencies like International Accreditation Forum. Compliance is often evidenced through documented incident plans, training records, interoperability test results, and after-action reports used by regulators and oversight bodies including Parliamentary committees and national audit offices.
The standard was published in 2011 following development by technical committees and working groups within the International Organization for Standardization informed by lessons learned from incidents including 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami, 2005 London bombings, and major industrial accidents investigated by bodies like National Transportation Safety Board. Subsequent guidance documents, national adaptations, and related ISO publications have built on its principles; updates and potential revisions are influenced by emerging challenges exemplified by COVID-19 pandemic, evolving cyber-physical threats cited by European Commission policy papers, and practice changes from multinational exercises organized by NATO and United Nations.
Category:Standards