geocat.ch
Agricultural Greenhouse Gas Emissions MAUS
Based on legal provisions (Art. 185 para. 1bis SR 910.1, Art. 8 and 9 SR 919.118, Annex 1, item 09.24 SR 431.011), Agroscope and the Federal Office for Agriculture conduct agri-environmental monitoring (Monitoring of the Swiss Agri-Environmental System = MAUS). MAUS calculates various agri-environmental indicators that highlight the environmental impacts of agriculture and illustrate their development over time across different regions and production systems. The calculations are based on both existing data and own surveys.
Each agri-environmental indicator was calculated individually for each farm. For presentation on maps, the results were subsequently converted into an adaptive grid using the R package MRG (CRAN: Package MRG) (Skoien et al. 2025). This allows for a more detailed resolution of the values in areas with a higher farm density than in areas with few farms, while simultaneously ensuring data protection by aggregating at least 10 farms in each grid cell.
Greenhouse gas emissions are responsible for global warming. Here, we calculate the following greenhouse gas emissions in accordance with IPCC guidelines: 1A4c energy-related emissions (carbon dioxide; agriculture only), 3A enteric fermentation (methane), 3B manure management (methane, nitrous oxide), 3D agricultural soils (nitrous oxide), 3G liming (carbon dioxide), and 3H urea application (carbon dioxide). The agri-environmental indicator for greenhouse gas emissions is calculated using the SAGE model (Gilgen & Schneuwly et al. 2025). This model depicts the nitrogen flux largely in a manner similar to the Agrammon model (Kupper et al. 2010; Kupper et al. 2022); thus, emissions are calculated in the barn, on pasture, during the storage of farm manure, and during the application of fertilizers. In contrast to Agrammon, manure application emissions are calculated using the ALFAM2 module (Hafner et al. 2018), and the climatic conditions of the site (e.g., temperature) are also taken into account. Other greenhouse gas emissions (e.g., methane emissions, nitrous oxide emissions from crop residues) are calculated in accordance with the methodology of the national inventory (FOEN 2024a; FOEN 2024b). Methane and nitrous oxide are converted so that all emissions can be expressed in CO2 equivalents.
The main data sources for the calculation of greenhouse gas emissions are the georeferenced land use areas of the cantons, information from the Central Agricultural Policy Information System (AGIS), the movements of farmyard and recycled manure from HODUFLU, data on milk urea content and milk yield from Qualitas, aggregated values from the HAFL online survey on ammonia emissions (Kupper et al. 2022), yield data from various organizations (e.g., Farm Accountancy Data Network, Agristat, Swisspatat), the organic soil map by Wüst-Galley et al. (2015), and our own surveys, particularly regarding mineral fertilizer use, nitrogen excretion from pigs and poultry, and the consumption of fuel and heating materials. Some of these data are available for every farm (e.g., AGIS), while others are available only for a sample (e.g., mineral fertilizer use). To ensure that a value is available for every Swiss farm for each variable, missing values are estimated by calculating averages (e.g., at the regional level) or using statistical models (Random Forest models).
The published dataset comprises a database containing the indicators for 2021, 2022 and 2023, each as a separate feature dataset.
References:
- Gilgen, A. & Schneuwly, J., C. Zosso, L. Merbold, D. Bretscher (2025): New approach to calculate agri-environmental indicators using greenhouse gas emissions in Switzerland as an example. http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.5640831
- Kupper, T., Bonjour, C., Zaucker, F., Achermann, B., Menzi, H., Cordovil, C., & Ferreira, L. (2010). Agrammon: An internet based model for the estimation of ammonia emissions. 14th RAMIRAN International Conference, Lisboa Portugal. 334-337. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/285882022_Agrammon_an_internet_based_model_for_the_estimation_of_ammonia_emissions
- Kupper, T., Häni, C., Bretscher, D., & Zaucker, F. (2022). Ammoniakemissionen in der Schweiz 1990-2020. https://ira.agroscope.ch/de-CH/publication/49647
- Hafner, S. D., Pacholski, A., Bittman, S., Burchill, W., Bussink, W., Chantigny, M., Carozzi, M., Génermont, S., Häni, C., & Hansen, M. N. (2018). The ALFAM2 database on ammonia emission from field-applied manure: Description and illustrative analysis. Agricultural and Forest Meteorology, 258, 66-79, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.agrformet.2017.11.027
- FOEN. (2024a). Switzerland's Greenhouse Gas Inventory 1990-2022. National Inventory Document. https://www.bafu.admin.ch/bafu/en/home/topics/climate/state/data/climate-reporting/ghg-inventories/latest.html
- FOEN. (2024b). Switzerland's Informative Inventory Report 2024. https://www.infras.ch/media/filer_public/38/c6/38c630bb-c7c4-45ad-8e28-d99b0d3870c0/3021biir24_informative_inventory_report_che_2024.pdf
- Wüst-Galley, C., Grünig, A., & Leifeld, J. (2015). Locating organic soils for the Swiss greenhouse gas inventory. Agroscope Science, 26, 1-100, https://ira.agroscope.ch/de-CH/publication/34998
- Skoien, J. O., Lampach, N., Ramos, H., Seljak, R., Koeble, R., See, L. and Van der Velde, M. (2025): Flexible Approach for Statistical Disclosure Control in Geospatial Data. Journal of Geographical Systems, 27, 341–367, https://doi.org/10.1007/s10109-025-00472-5
Simple
- Alternate title
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MAUS GHG-emissions
- Date (Creation)
- 2025-04-06
- Date (Publication)
- 2026-10
- Date (Revision)
- 2021-01
- Date (Revision)
- 2022-01
- Date (Revision)
- 2023-01
- Status
- On going
Owner
Point of contact
Processor
- Spatial representation type
- Vector
Spatial resolution
Equivalent scale
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- 200000
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P1Y0M0DT0H0M0S
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- S Farming
Extent
Extent
- Description
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Switzerland
))
- Maintenance and update frequency
- Annually
- geocat.ch
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agricultural exploitation
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- GEMET
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indicator
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greenhouse gas emissions
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monitoring
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agriculture
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greenhouse gas
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- Part of same structured set of data held in a computer
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- A2 Land Cover, Land Use
Digital transfer options
Digital transfer options
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Digital transfer options
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Digital transfer options
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- EPSG:2056
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- Français
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- UTF8
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- Italiano
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- English
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Point of contact
Type of resource
- Resource scope
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Time sries MAUS GHG-emissions
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https://geocat-dev.dev.bgdi.ch/geonetwork/srv/api/records/fccadc73-2d1b-4ebd-9938-fb74e6ab80b9
- Date info (Creation)
- 2026-06-02T07:11:43.421812Z
- Date info (Revision)
- 2026-06-08T10:10:51.658396Z
- Date info (Creation)
- 2026-04-28T06:21:28.680024Z
Metadata standard
- Title
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ISO19115.3-2018.che
