Chesterfield County has won the highest national award among counties in the digital-government arena by capturing the Digital Counties Survey 2010, according to a press release from the county.

The Center for Digital Government recently announced the winners of its annual survey competition. The competition is a collaborative effort among the Center for Digital Government, the National Association of Counties, Government Technology magazine and the Digital Communities program, the release says.

This year’s competition raised the bar for competitors, it says, placing an emphasis on how such technologies had improved the lives of government employees and residents. Judges took particular note of technologies used to create higher levels of transparency, reduce energy consumption and effectively manage resources, a challenge amplified by the tough economy, the release says.

Projects highlighted in the county’s survey included:

• Citizen GIS, a new online-mapping and aerial-photography feature available on the county’s website that is making county geographic information more readily available to the public.
• CCTV, which provide board and commission meetings live and archived via streaming video on the county website.
• Citizen Wi-Fi, which provides people visiting county buildings and libraries free Internet access through their own wireless devices.
• Using Wi-Fi hotspots throughout the county to make the building inspections permit process more efficient.
• A redesigned chesterfield.gov website that uses a content management system to introduce the public to “connected government” by use of social media tools, interactive mapping for directions, language translations and font sizing.