A Smart City Decision Support System: Improving Service Performance, Accountability and Citizen Satisfaction

Background Information

Ashkelon is one of Israel’s leaders committed to providing quality public service. The accountability and responsiveness of public service has become an integral feature of the city’s administration. Ashkelon is dedicated to strategic principles in citizen participation and feedback, smart governance and the sustainability of “Green Management”.

One of the leading challenges currently faced by this effort for sustainable quality service delivery is to reduce the amount and the need of Ashkelon’s 131,000 residents to make service complaints to the city.

Over the next three years, this initiative is designed to increase the amount and quality of preventative public services through the constant follow-up of departmental activities and tasks.

At present, this project is the sole creation of the city of Ashkelon, and is being developed in-house by the Strategic Planning Branch in cooperation with the Computer and Information and Systems Branch. All funding is based on regular city departmental financial, technological and managerial resources.

This challenge includes the following goals:

•Reduce the levels of public service complaints and service requests, while increasing the levels of citizen satisfaction

•Translate treatment of public service complaints into effective operational stages

•Ensure continuity of operations over time

•Combine short-term decisions to resolve complaints and requests with long range goals

•Develop a follow-up system to improve decision making and resource allocation for solutions to public service complaints

•Provide improved economic sustainability over the long term through reduced service costs for resource allocation

•Increase social capital generation by empowering the public through increased interaction between citizens and the city government

•Adhere to environmentally sustainable principles 

Innovation for the Initiative

The creation of the Smart City Decision Support System using geographic information systems (GIS) is revolutionary in its approach. It is now possible to map concentrations of complaints and dissatisfaction with real-time performance levels, and to spatially evaluate the quality and effectiveness of services in resolving citizen complaints. This system visually assesses the impact of performance levels and demands improvement and accountability from each city department through continual follow-up.

Our project emphasizing visual-spatial assessments for improving services, decision making and accountability is a truly revolutionary approach. One of the benefits of this ground-breaking visual-spatial approach is the ability of service providers to understand the true nature of their performance.

Other benefits include:

•Raising the level of social capital via cost effective city services

•Sustainable “green management” through improved sanitation and environmental services

•Empowering the city’s residents in the decision making process.

Obstacles and Solutions for Innovation

In order to reduce departmental resistance to this scheme, this system must be positioned as a positive method for improving departmental services, and must not be seen as a threat. One common fear is that the “empowered citizens” will increase their expectations for better services beyond the departments’ abilities.

Outcomes and Assessments

The successful outcome of our pilot project shows that the Smart Decision Support System has a direct positive impact on improving resident quality of life. Follow-up surveys show a steady increase in citizen satisfaction at all levels of service. The drive to improve our behavior and efficiency in public services underscores the importance of follow-up and accountability in response to needs of local citizens.

The Strategic Planning Branch evaluates statistical data at monthly meetings based on the following measurements:

•Most frequent call center service complaints per year.

•Daily satisfaction surveys based on complaints made the week prior to the surveys.

•GIS maps and spatial analysis of service complaints density.

•Accountability success measurements derived from surveys.

All analyses are categorized by subject, date, time and location. GIS is the principal tool used for decision support. This spatial analytical mapping tool has never been used by Israeli local authorities to visually assess service complaints and dissatisfaction.

Since the development of the Smart Decision Support System, Ashkelon has been recognized as a leader in both Israel and Europe for its initiative for quality municipal management.

Benefits to Other Cities

The core of our Smart Decision Support System initiative is the use of GIS. This innovation provides a methodology not usually associated with services improvement.

The city of Ashkelon’s Smart Decision Support System can easily be replicated and adapted to other contexts and to other geographic areas. All that is required is a desire by other cities, regions, communities or parties to provide quality management policies in order to provide the highest quality services to their citizens. The project’s instruments and methods are extremely flexible and can be applied to a wide range of problems, from improving services to homeland security.

We have shared our philosophy, ideas and methods with many of our neighboring cities and have recently received recognition from the union of local authorities of the Council of Europe.