t may not seem like much, but at $34 a ton, even ordinary street salt can break a budget in a city that slathers 300,000 tons a year on its roadways. So New York's Sanitation Department dispatched a new generation of salt spreaders this winter, loaded with satellite tracking devices and sensors that can measure precisely how much salt is dropped per mile and report back when there is any waste.

Similarly, city environmental officials are using technology to conserve their resources in monitoring the city's reservoir system in upstate New York. Last year, they deployed their version of the Mars rover - known as R.U.S.S., for Remote Underwater Surveillance System - to take readings once done by inspectors in boats.

The Department of Information Technology and Telecommunications is also rolling out an interactive three-dimensional map of the entire cityscape this spring that could someday all but eliminate the need for on-site surveys. It is expected to be used for everything from collecting property taxes to bolstering security at big events to developing architectural plans for the city's 2012 Olympic bid.

This is all part of a technological revolution under way in New York City government that is rapidly changing the way that its agencies carry out their functions and provide services to residents. From rationing street salt to sending out daily e-mail messages on parking rules, once-lumbering bureaucracies are adopting the latest scientific advances as a means of cutting costs, increasing efficiency as well as ensuring greater accountability after a series of corporate and government corruption scandals.

Many of these changes have been promoted by Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, whose pet project last year was the creation of a 311 hotline to centralize information about city services and take complaints from residents at the touch of a button.

Under the Bloomberg administration, spending on technology across all city agencies has risen steadily to an estimated $1 billion this year, even as spending in other areas has been trimmed. The move to modernize is also part of a larger trend, one that many cities, long known for their dusty ways, are embracing.

William Lehr, a research associate at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, said that since the late 1990's, municipal governments, large and small, have been rushing to take advantage of what he described as a convergence of better and cheaper technologies.

"You don't have to be the C.I.A. or General Motors or Boeing to take advantage of computing and information technology anymore," he said. "Cheap computing, the Internet and wireless data services now make these capabilities available to small businesses, local governments and consumers."

Mayor Bloomberg and his commissioners view technology as an essential component for improving governmental operations, whether that means consolidating and updating database systems or introducing sophisticated gadgets like hand-held computers and satellite-tracking devices. "I have always believed, if used correctly, technology makes people more efficient," Mayor Bloomberg said in an interview. "It does not replace people. In the end, it's in their interests."

But the new technology is also meeting resistance from critics who question the high start-up costs, and from some city workers who said they experienced glitches in the transition. Last month, for instance, the Buildings Department started using mapping technology that was supposed to schedule plumbing inspections more efficiently, by grouping the appointments together by location. However, some inspectors were initially bounced from the East Side to the West Side and back.

"That was certainly one of the rough spots," said Mark H. Topping, a deputy buildings commissioner, adding that the system is now running smoothly. The new technology, with its seemingly boundless capabilities, has also raised concerns about privacy. Norman Siegel, a civil rights lawyer, said employers will increasingly be able to keep tabs on workers at any moment, even during lunch hours or on weekends. "It's going to raise serious and substantial issues about privacy for city workers as this technology is employed in the workplace," he said.

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