Repository logo

Infoscience

  • English
  • French
Log In
Logo EPFL, École polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne

Infoscience

  • English
  • French
Log In
  1. Home
  2. Academic and Research Output
  3. Conferences, Workshops, Symposiums, and Seminars
  4. A Hybrid Architecture for Urban Planning Decision Support Using Data-Driven Analysis and NLP: A Use Case in Nouakchott, Africa
 
conference paper

A Hybrid Architecture for Urban Planning Decision Support Using Data-Driven Analysis and NLP: A Use Case in Nouakchott, Africa

Bounabi, Mariem
•
Abdellahi, Ebnou Abdem Seyid
•
Azmi, Rida
Show more
October 20, 2025
SITA'25 15th International Conference on Intelligent Systems: Theories and Applications
15th International Conference on Intelligent Systems. Theories and Applications (SITA 2025)

Urban planning increasingly faces the dual challenge of heterogeneous data sources and the complex realities of fast-growing cities, particularly in Africa. Conventional decision-support systems often rely on structured indicators, neglecting the richness of unstructured textual data such as citizen feedback, local reports, and narratives. This paper proposes a hybrid architecture for urban planning decision support, combining data warehousing, data mining, and natural language processing (NLP) to integrate and analyze multi-source information. The architecture is structured around a centralized data warehouse consolidating Subnational Water Access (SWA) indicators, geospatial attributes, and unstructured urban narratives. To achieve this, we apply UMAP to perform dimensionality reduction as part of the pattern discovery phase, after which we utilize BERTopic to extract meaningful topic clusters. The resulting topics, which reflect public sentiment on water access, are then spatially aligned with subnational water access indicators to enable comparative analysis across urban districts. We validate this framework using a case study in Nouakchott, Mauritania, where discrepancies between piped water availability and perceived infrastructure pressure are mapped and interpreted. The results show a strong semantic coherence among the extracted topics (coherence value score =0.95) and demonstrate the utility of spatialized topic modeling for highlighting latent urban inequalities. Our contribution enables more inclusive, contextaware, and data-driven decision-making in urban planning.

  • Details
  • Metrics
Type
conference paper
DOI
10.1109/sita67914.2025.11273555
Author(s)
Bounabi, Mariem
Abdellahi, Ebnou Abdem Seyid
Azmi, Rida
Hlal, Mohammed
Diop, ELBachir
Chenal, Jérôme  

École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne

Date Issued

2025-10-20

Publisher

IEEE

Published in
SITA'25 15th International Conference on Intelligent Systems: Theories and Applications
DOI of the book
https://doi.org/10.1109/SITA67914.2025
ISBN of the book

9798331559892

Start page

1

End page

8

Editorial or Peer reviewed

REVIEWED

Written at

EPFL

EPFL units
CEAT  
Event nameEvent acronymEvent placeEvent date
15th International Conference on Intelligent Systems. Theories and Applications (SITA 2025)

SITA'25

Rabat, Morocco

2025-10-20 - 2025-10-21

Available on Infoscience
December 11, 2025
Use this identifier to reference this record
https://infoscience.epfl.ch/handle/20.500.14299/256941
Logo EPFL, École polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne
  • Contact
  • infoscience@epfl.ch

  • Follow us on Facebook
  • Follow us on Instagram
  • Follow us on LinkedIn
  • Follow us on X
  • Follow us on Youtube
AccessibilityLegal noticePrivacy policyCookie settingsEnd User AgreementGet helpFeedback

Infoscience is a service managed and provided by the Library and IT Services of EPFL. © EPFL, tous droits réservés