STREET ADDRESSING AND STREET RENAMING IN YANTALA (NIAMEY, NIGER): A GIS TO INVENTORY PUBLIC GREEN SPACES AND TRACK RENAMED STREETS

Since 2023, Niamey has been renaming some of its streets and squares, while its addressing system still relies on a 2004 plan. This study examines how a geographic information system can, at the neighbourhood level, both inventory public green spaces and track street renaming. A database of six feature classes, designed in ArcGIS, stores for each street its 2004 code, former name, and new name. It is shared in KML format. The September 2026 survey in Yantala covered the 21 segments of named streets, 11 new names, the neighbourhood’s 3 public green spaces and 15 control points; seven municipal officers tested the tool. No street-name sign has ever been installed, and no new name is displayed. Six of the 11 new names relate to arts and culture; 2 refer to women. Green spaces cover 3,436 m², about 0.04 m² per inhabitant, and the Château I garden has lost 82% of its area to a restaurant. The positional error (RMSE) is 0.19 m. With the tool, the officers completed all 21 tasks; with the current method, only 9. The mean usability score is 92.9/100. The GIS is currently the only medium in which codes, former names, and new names coexist; it can serve as a common reference for municipal services.