Land cover and land use

Landscapes reflect both human activity and natural processes. A variety of different local conditions, forms of agriculture and building styles give Switzerland, when viewed from the air, the appearance of a sharply defined jigsaw puzzle with a total area of 41,285 sqkm.

When examined more closely, it becomes clear that the various forms of land use correspond to different vegetation zones. Farmland, fruit orchards, vineyards and gardens are interspersed with settled areas and forests in the colline zone. Meadows and pastures and forests are to be found in the montane and subalpine zones, while alpine pastures and meadows, boulders, and rock dot the alpine zone and glaciers and firn dominate in the nival zone.

In order to gain an initial rough overview of the situation, the various forms of land use are consolidated into four so-called main areas in accordance with the “standard nomenclature”. These are settlement areas, agriculture areas, stocked areas and other natural areas.

Settlement areas

Along with land that has been built upon or underneath, settlement areas also include all areas that serve settlement purposes or are somehow related to them. Examples here include home gardens, parks and sport and recreational facilities, green areas adjacent to traffic and transport arteries, and areas that are temporarily not in use, or else are linked to construction activities – e.g. construction sites, landfills, gravel quarries. In 2009, a total of 7.5% of all land area in Switzerland was used for settlement purposes.

As one would expect, the heaviest concentrations of settlement areas are to be found on the Swiss Plateau, north of the Jura Mountains and in southern Ticino. In fact, at 16%, the share of total land area accounted for by settlement areas in the bio-geographic region of the Swiss Plateau is more than double the national average. This share is highest in the “spatial mobility” (MS) regions of Basel (70.9%) and Zurich (61.9%). In addition, more than two-thirds of all settlement areas are located at elevations of less than 600 metres.

Agriculture areas

Agriculture areas are all areas where fodder and cash crops are cultivated, fruits and vegetables are grown, vineyards are operated and gardens are maintained. This category includes greenhouses but not farmhouses, barns etc. More than one-third (35.9%) of the total land area in Switzerland was used for agricultural production in 2009, which means that agriculture areas occupy the most space of all the four main areas.

Areas in which more than half of all land is used for agriculture are to be found on the Swiss Plateau, in the southern Jura Mountains and in the Prealps in eastern Switzerland. Regions where the proportion of agricultural land use is particularly low include Ticino, Val Mesolcina and parts of Valais.

Stocked areas

Stocked areas include closed or cleared woodland, even if these are temporarily without trees due to timber cutting or natural events. Groves and scrubland also belong to this category, which accounts for nearly one-third (31.3%) of total land area in Switzerland.

Regions with a particularly high share of stocked area are to be found in the Jura mountains, the Chur Rhine Valley, Ticino and Val Mesolcina. The lowest shares of stocked area are to be found in either densely populated or heavily agricultural regions on the Swiss Plateau, or in alpine regions whose territory is mainly situated above the tree line.

Other natural areas

This fourth main area includes all land free of trees and shrubs that is still largely untouched and is not used for either agricultural or settlement purposes. These “other natural areas” (designated in the nomenclature as “unproductive areas”) account for slightly more than one-fourth (25.3%) of total land area in Switzerland.

As one would expect, the share of other natural areas is largest by far in the central Swiss Alps, 44.6% of which is devoid of vegetation, while 10.9% consists of glaciers.

Land Use Statistics

Land Use Statistics on Switzerland's land use and land cover have been collected since the 1980s. The statistics, which are produced by the Federal Statistical Office, provide the public with valuable information on landscape development in the country. The data serves as an indispensable foundation for numerous research projects, as well as for the formulation of spatial planning and development policies and the evaluation of the effectiveness of administrative measures.

Data collection methodology

The Land Use Statistics interpret land use and land cover patterns on the basis of digital aerial photographs taken by the Federal Office of Topography (swisstopo). More specifically, two codes are assigned to each of the 4.1 million sample points at a distance from one another of 100 × 100 m. The codes correspond to land cover type (vegetation, buildings, water etc.) and land use (agriculture, housing, industrial production, recreation etc.). The results of three methodologically identical surveys were available as of 2014. These studies were based on aerial photographs taken during the periods 1979-1985, 1992-1997 and 2004-2009. For the purposes of comprehensibility and securing the time series, the two nomenclatures for land cover and “pure land use” are combined into a third nomenclature – the so-called standard nomenclature.

Land Use Statistics nomenclature

The Land Use Statistics nomenclature contains separate basic categories for land use and land cover. “Pure land use” describes the socio-economic use of land (agriculture, housing, industrial production, etc.). Land cover describes the physical attributes of the land surface (vegetation, buildings, impervious surfaces, water etc.). The two are combined to derive “land use in accordance with the standard nomenclature”, which has 72 categories. The categories are consolidated into aggregations with 17 and 27 classes, as well as four main areas – settlement areas, agriculture areas, stocked areas and other natural areas.