geocat.ch
Estimate of Switzerland’s Organic Soil Surface, 2025
Estimate of Switzerland’s Organic Soil Surface, 2025
The 2025 estimate of Switzerland’s organic soil surface is an update of the 2015 estimate of organic soils. As in the 2015 map, it used the approach of collating existing information sources (e.g., soil maps, geology maps, forest habitat maps, historical observations of peatlands, as well as inventories of fens and raised bogs) to generate an estimate or the current extent of organic soils. In a first step, four important data sets were updated: Soil maps, geology maps, the national inventory of raised and transitional bogs, and the forest habitat maps. In a second step, all data sets were harmonized and inserted into a data model, allowing the semi-automatic combination of the various data sets. In a third step, the data sets were combined (more specifically, overlain) and a rule-based method was used to characterise the resulting surfaces as organic soil, or not organic soil. In a fourth step, information on the mineral soil surface was used to delete surfaces for which the evidence of mineral soil was stronger. The soil surface recommended for use in most applications is 32,702 ha, which corresponds to the ‘less conservative’ estimate or organic soils.
Because of the heterogeneous nature of the information sources that were used to generate this indicator map, it is not possible to define the scale for which this map is appropriate. The following recommendation can however be made: The map is suitable for use at the regional scale (e.g., cantonal or district, ca. 1:100,000) and larger scale only; it is unsuitable for field-scale use.
The two publications (Wüst-Galley, C. and J. Leifeld (2025) “The distribution and (future) use of Switzerland’s organic soils” Mires and Peat 32(4): 1-17, DOI: 10.19189/001c.130819 and Wüst-Galley, C., A. Grünig and J. Leifeld (2015) “Locating organic soils for the greenhouse gas inventory” Agroscope Science 26, 100 pp.) describe the methodology and updated data sets in detail, and it is strongly recommended that both publications should be read by anybody wanting to use this data set.
Parts of the data are subject to a licence. Please read the additional documentation.
Simple
Identification info
- Alternate title
-
Organic soils CH 2024
- Date (Creation)
- 2024-08
- Date (Publication)
- 2025-04
- Citation identifier
- ch.agroscope.abschaetzung-organische_boeden
- Status
- Completed
Point of contact
Responsible party
- Organisation name
-
Agroscope
- Voice
-
+41 58 466 77 74
- Direct number
-
+41 58 466 77 74
Address
- City
-
Zürich
- Postal code
-
8046
- Country
-
CH
- Electronic mail address
-
chloe.wuest@agroscope.adm chloe.wuest@agroscope.admin.ch
- Streetname
-
Reckenholzstrasse
- Streetnumber
-
191
- Website
- https://www.agroscope.admin.ch/agroscope/de/home.html ( www.agroscope.ch )
- Role
- Author
- First Name
-
Chloé
- Last Name
-
Wüst
- Organisation Acronym
-
Agroscope organische Boeden
- Maintenance and update frequency
- Unknown
-
geocat.ch
-
-
confederation
-
FSDI Federal Spatial Data Infrastructure
-
-
GEMET
-
-
climate protection
-
mapping
-
mapping
-
bog
-
bog
-
waterlogged land
-
greenhouse gas
-
greenhouse gas
-
-
GEMET themes
-
-
soil
-
- Classification
- Unclassified
- User note
-
Parts of the data are subject to a licence.
- Use limitation
-
Zitat Publikation
- Access constraints
- License
- Use constraints
- License
- Other constraints
- Opendata OPEN: Open use.
- Other constraints
- Subject to license (CC BY-SA).
- Spatial representation type
- Vector
- Denominator
- 100000
- Language
- Deutsch
- Character set
- UTF8
- Topic category
-
- F Geology, Soils, Natural Hazards
- F2 Soils
Extent
- Description
-
Switzerland
))
- Distribution format
-
-
ESRI File Geodatabase FileGDB (GDB)
()
-
OGC Geopackage (GPKG)
()
-
ESRI File Geodatabase FileGDB (GDB)
()
Distributor
- OnLine resource
-
Link to the project
(
WWW:LINK
)
Link to the project
- OnLine resource
-
STAC Browser
(
WWW:DOWNLOAD-URL
)
Link for data download
- OnLine resource
- Map preview ( MAP:Preview )
- OnLine resource
-
Wüst-Galley Leifeld 2025 org soils map.pdf
(
WWW:LINK
)
Link zur Publikation
- OnLine resource
-
Wüst-Galley et al 2015 LocatingOrganicSoilsForTheSwissGreenhouseGasInventory.pdf
(
WWW:LINK
)
Publication explaining the data of 2015
- OnLine resource
-
Wüst-Galley Leifeld 2025 org soils map SI.pdf
(
WWW:DOWNLOAD
)
Publication explaining the data of 2024
- OnLine resource
- Legend (German) ( LEGEND:PNG )
- OnLine resource
-
Abstract_de_engl_fr_def.pdf
(
WWW:DOWNLOAD
)
Additional description of the data
- Protocol
-
OGC:WMS
- Name of the resource
-
ch.agroscope.abschaetzung-organische_boeden
- Description
-
WMS-BGDI service, layer "Organic soils CH 2024"
- Protocol
-
OGC:WMTS
- Name of the resource
-
ch.agroscope.abschaetzung-organische_boeden
- Description
-
WMTS-BGDI service, layer "Organic soils CH 2024"
- Topology level
- Full planar graph
- Geometric object type
- Surface
- Number of dimensions
- 2
- Cell geometry
- Area
- Reference system identifier
- LV95 EPSG:2056
Metadata
- Metadata language
- Deutsch
- Character set
- UTF8
- Hierarchy level
- Dataset
- Date stamp
- 2025-06-11T09:54:12.883Z
- Metadata standard name
-
GM03_2
Metadata author
Responsible party
- Organisation name
-
Agroscope meta data
- Position name
-
GIS coordintation
Address
- City
-
Zürich
- Postal code
-
8046
- Country
-
CH
- Electronic mail address
-
GIS@agroscope.adm GIS@agroscope.admin.ch
- Streetname
-
Reckenholzstrasse
- Streetnumber
-
191
- Website
- http://www.agroscope.admin.ch ( WWW:LINK )
- Role
- Custodian
- Organisation Acronym
-
Agroscope
- Maintenance and update frequency
- Not planned
