Digital Cities Survey 2024 Winners Announced

November 6, 2024 – The 24th annual Digital Cities Survey is recognizing cities utilizing technology to enhance digital services and transparency, strengthen cybersecurity, digital privacy rights, and digital equity, and those finding innovative ways to support solutions for social challenges facing cities today.

The top 10-ranking cities in each of five population categories will be honored during the Digital Cities Awards event at the National League of Cities “City Summit” on November 13 in Tampa Bay, Florida. Registration is complimentary and open only to the public sector.

“Cities of every size are redefining what’s possible using technology to elevate public service and improve government,” said John Matelski, Executive Director of the Center for Digital Government. “The Digital Cities Survey is proud to honor these visionary leaders and cities setting bold new benchmarks in digital governance. Congratulations to all those driving impactful change and pioneering the future of local government with innovation and steadfast commitment.”
This year’s first place winners in each population category include:

• City of San Diego, Calif. (500,000 or more population category):

San Diego has a citizen-centric focus with implementation of digital, emerging, and AI technologies to improve city services and citizens' digital experience. For example, they use many channels to collect feedback to drive enhancements, the Get IT Done system posts service requests to a public-facing dashboard, and they released an artificial intelligence chatbot called My eCISO to help small businesses and agencies improve their cyber security programs. They are researching several GenAI chatbots and launched one for the City Regulations and Code.

• City of Long Beach, Calif. (250,000 – 499,999 population category):

The Long Beach Technology & Innovation Department is helping drive city operations that support city priorities with the launch of the Equitable Data Collection Toolkit, the Civic User Research process to evaluate the usability and effectiveness of digital services, the Data Privacy Champions Workgroup with staff to implement their Data Privacy Policy, and the Co-Lab challenge-based community procurement program and the internal Smart City Challenge.

• City of Scottsdale, Ariz. (125,000-249,999 population category):

Scottsdale expanded data governance citywide, driving innovation in data and information management, business intelligence, AI and machine learning, open data and GIS. They established a Data Council and implemented a data catalog platform that serves as a single source for all data assets. They constructed 100 miles of new fiber conduits and upgraded the microwave and fiber transport network that serves Scottsdale, Phoenix, and 20 more regional municipalities.

• City of South Bend, Ind. (75,000-124,999 population category):

South Bend, Indiana not only conducted internal training for AI integration and uses, but also developed and published a comprehensive city-wide policy. They are participants in the GovAI Coalition, MetroLab, and NLC AI Advisory Committee. The city is working in a data-driven culture and is developing and has many key performance indicators in place.

• City of Marietta, Ga. (up to 75,000 population category):

Marietta, Georgia’s IT focuses on the overall impact when implementing technology improvements. For example, for the GridTrust project, their partnership with the city-owned power utility and Georgia Tech students resulted in a technology that provides a capability that may be useful to every utility in the country – a best practice achievement in protecting electrical grids.

To view the awards article and winner summaries, CLICK HERE.

CDG expresses its gratitude to the underwriters of this year’s survey: Premier Corporate Members – Amazon Web Services, Inc. and Avanade; Standard Corporate Members – Accela, Granicus/Carahsoft, SHI International Corp. and Workday.
Congratulations to the 2024 Digital Cities Survey Winners!

500,000 or more Population Category:

1st City of San Diego, CA
2nd City of Los Angeles, CA
2nd City of San Jose, CA
3rd City of Seattle, WA
4th City of Atlanta, GA
5th City and County of Denver, CO
5th City of Mesa, AZ
6th City of Boston, MA
7th City of Phoenix, AZ
8th City of Charlotte, NC
9th City of Sacramento, CA
10th City of Albuquerque, NM

250,000 - 499,999 Population Category:

1st City of Long Beach, CA
2nd City of Chandler, AZ
3rd City of Virginia Beach, VA
4th City of Wichita, KS
5th City of Durham, NC
6th Town of Gilbert, AZ
7th City of Riverside, CA
8th City of Oakland, CA
9th City of Irvine, CA

125,000 - 249,999 Population Category:

1st City of Scottsdale, AZ
2nd City of Columbia, MO
3rd City of Baton Rouge, LA
4th City of Olathe, KS
4th City of Roseville, CA
5th City of Bellevue, WA
5th City of Norfolk, VA
6th City of Grand Prairie, TX
7th City of Augusta, GA
8th City of Rancho Cucamonga, CA
9th City of Frisco, TX
10th City of Hampton, VA

75,000 - 124,999 Population Category:

1st City of South Bend, IN
2nd City of Carlsbad, CA
3rd City of Avondale, AZ
4th City of Allen, TX
5th City of Lynchburg, VA
5th City of Roanoke, VA
6th City of North Port, FL
7th City of Pueblo, CO
8th Village of Schaumburg, IL
9th City of Westminster, CO
10th City of Independence, MO

Up to 75,000 Population Category:

1st City of Marietta, GA
2nd Village of Tinley Park, IL
3rd City of Punta Gorda, FL
4th City of Williamsburg, VA
5th City of Danville, VA
5th City of El Segundo, CA
6th Town of Normal, IL
7th Lake Havasu City, AZ
8th City of Delray Beach, FL
9th City of Kalamazoo, MI
9th City of Tamarac, FL
10th City of Newark, CA

SELECTED SURVEY FINDINGS

Top 10 IT programs/projects that are likely to have an increased focus in the next 12-18 months:
1. Cybersecurity
2. Constituent/customer engagement/experience
3. Artificial Intelligence/Machine Learning including Pilots
4. Business process automation
5. Disaster recovery/continuity of operations
6. Business intelligence/analytics
7. Data governance: transparency, open data
8. Hire/retain/nurture competent IT personnel
9. Agency/Departmental IT collaboration
10. Application Modernization

Top 5 most pressing challenges your city faced in the past year:
1. Funding constraints including multi-year funding
2. Staff shortages
3. Social issues such as homelessness, immigration
4. Impact of extreme crises on constituents and businesses
5. Population demographic changes

Artificial Intelligence (AI)
The Digital Cities Survey results show that on average 24% of cities have transitioned beyond pilots to implementation of the programs listed in the survey.

The highest level of implementation of AI support is for the following programs:

• Threat Detection and Prevention – 75%
• Natural Language Processing – 37%
• Sentiment Analysis and Customer Feedback – 36%.

About the Center for Digital Government:

The Center for Digital Government is a national research and advisory institute focused on technology policy and best practices in state and local government. CDG is a division of e.Republic, the nation’s only media and research company focused exclusively on state and local government and education.

Contact:
Janet Grenslitt
Director of Surveys and Awards
e.Republic | Center for Digital Government
916-932-1300
jgrenslitt@erepublic.com