GIS And Participatory Governance For The Modernization Of Urban Street-Sweeping Services: A Case Study Of Oum El Bouaghi

Abstract

Urban street-sweeping services are a key element of municipal solid waste and environmental management, yet they remain poorly documented in many medium-sized cities of the Global South. This article presents a detailed diagnostic of the street-sweeping service in the city of Oum El Bouaghi (Algeria), based on field observations, semi-structured interviews, administrative data, and spatial analysis using QGIS. The study examines human and material resources, the organisation of work blocks and schedules, and the spatial coverage of the road network. The results show that only about 11% of the urban road network is regularly swept, with a strong concentration of efforts in central administrative and commercial areas, while peripheral districts remain largely underserved. The service relies exclusively on manual sweeping, with 26 sweepers organised into 17 work blocks, operating without mechanical sweepers or purpose-built street-cleaning depots. Using a GIS-supported sectorisation exercise, an optimised scenario is proposed in which coverage could increase to nearly 35% of the road network without additional staff, through a more rational distribution of blocks, the creation of local cleaning stations, and adjustments to day/night shifts. The discussion relates these findings to current debates on GIS-based optimisation of urban services and on collaborative and participatory governance in African cities. The article concludes by outlining operational, institutional, and participatory pathways for modernising the street-sweeping service in Oum El Bouaghi in line with smart and sustainable urban governance.