GeoNames Forum

Hello!

For Nouakchott (https://www.geonames.org/2377450/nouakchott.html), capital of Mauritania, I have noticed that it is listed as PPLC directly under the country, without even an ADM1. I've been crawling around in Geonames for a littie while now, and this seems inconsistent with how other cities are handled, at the very least among other PPLCs.

Taking a peek at the ISO 3166-2 codes for Mauritania (https://www.iso.org/obp/ui/#iso:code:3166:MR), it's easy to see why: Nouakchott is itself broken down into multiple regions, with no one region containing all of Nouakchott itself.

There are other examples of cities like this. For example, London, which is itself broken down into 32 boroughs and 1 city corporation by ISO 3166-2 (https://www.iso.org/obp/ui/#iso:code:3166:GB), none of which contain all of "London" as most folks think of it. I think Geonames' solution in this case is very practical: For London (https://www.geonames.org/2643743/london.html), create a new ADM division (ADM2, in this case) "Greater London" (https://www.geonames.org/2648110/greater-london.html), and make the 32 boroughs and 1 city corporation children of this ADM2. Granted, it creates a "synthetic" region not included in ISO 3166-2, but it's simple, easy to understand, makes Geonames' model of the world a better fit for how most people think of it, and keeps Geonames' structure consistent.

I propose creating a similar "Greater Nouakchott" ADM1; placing Nouakchott in it directly; converting the existing Geonames regions for ISO 3166-2 MR-13, MR-14, and MR-15 (https://www.geonames.org/11496391/nouakchott-ouest.html, https://www.geonames.org/11496392/nouakchott-nord.html, and https://www.geonames.org/11496393/nouakchott-sud.html, respectively) to ADM2; and placing these updated ADM2 regions under the new ADM1.

This would also push about 9 existing ADM2 down to ADM3, and any other geonames that refer to this administrative structure would need to be adjusted, too.

This feels like a small and reasonable change to me, but also not trivial. What is the process for pushing a change like this through? I'm perfectly comfortable updating names and figures, but changing structure doesn't feel like the time to "just do it." (It's also not clear if these kinds of changes can even be done through the web UI!) Is there any kind of governing body I should be talking to?

Thank you in advance for all help and advice!