geocat.ch
Monitoring of the Swiss Agri-Environmental System – Nitrogen Balance
Based on legal foundations (SR 919.118, Articles 8, 9, 9a; SR 431.011, Chapter 09.42), Agroscope carries out an agri-environmental monitoring programme (Monitoring of the Swiss Agri-Environmental System = MAUS) on behalf of the Federal Office for Agriculture. MAUS calculates a range of agri-environmental indicators that show the environmental impact of agriculture and track the development across regions and production systems over time. The calculations are based on both existing data and our own surveys.
The agri-environmental indicator nitrogen balance is a gross surface balance according to the OECD method (Eurostat, 2013). Nitrogen reaches the agricultural surface through fertilisers, seeds, nitrogen fixation, and nitrogen deposition (inputs). Yields (including pasture and removed crop residues) remove nitrogen from the soil (outputs; Baumgartner et al., 2024). The difference between inputs and outputs represents the excess nitrogen that is lost to the environment. These nitrogen losses can lead, for example, to biodiversity loss, deterioration in drinking water quality, or air pollution.
The most important data sources for the nitrogen balance are the georeferenced land use data from the cantons, information from the central agricultural policy information system (AGIS), the shifts in manure and recycled fertiliser from HODUFLU, data on milk urea content and milk yield from Qualitas, yield data from various organisations (e.g. Swiss Farm Accountancy Data Network, Agristat, Swisspatat), the nitrogen deposition map with sources outside agriculture (Rihm and Künzle 2023), and our own surveys, in particular for mineral fertiliser use, nitrogen excretion by pigs and poultry, the removal of crop residues, and shifts in basic feed and straw.
Some of this data is available for every farm (e.g. AGIS), while other data is only available for a sample (e.g. yield data). To ensure that a value is available for every Swiss farm for each variable, missing values are estimated by calculating averages (e.g. at regional level) or using statistical models (e.g. random forest).
The indicator was calculated for each farm and then converted into an adaptive grid using the R package MRG (CRAN: Package MRG). This allows for a more detailed resolution of values in areas with a higher farm density than in areas with few farms, while at the same time ensuring data protection.
The published dataset comprises a database containing the indicators for 2021, 2022 and 2023, each as a separate feature dataset.
References:
• Baumgartner, S., Spiess, E., Liebisch, F., Gilgen, A. (2024): Regionale Stickstoffbilanzen: Erste Ergebnisse von MAUS (Monitoring des Agrarumweltsystems Schweiz). Agroscope Science, 185. https://doi.org/10.34776/as185g
• Eurostat. (2013). Nutrient Budgets – Methodology and Handbook. Version 1.02. Eurostat and OECD, Luxembourg. aei_pr_gnb_esms_an_1.pdf
• Rihm, B., & Künzle, T. (2023). Nitrogen deposition and exceedances of critical loads for nitrogen in Switzerland. Meteotest, Bern, commissioned by the Federal Office for the Environment (FOEN). https://www.bafu.admin.ch/dam/bafu/de/dokumente/luft/externe-studien-berichte/Nitrogen_deposition_and_exceedances_of_critical_loads_for_nitrogen_in_Switzerland_1990–2020_final%20(1).pdf.download.pdf/Nitrogen_deposition_and_exceedances_of_critical_loads_for_nitrogen_in_Switzerland_1990–2020_final%20(1).pdf.
Simple
- Alternate title
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MAUS-N-Balance
- Date (Creation)
- 2026-05
- 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
- Denominator
- 200000
- Temporal resolution
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P1Y0M0DT0H0M0S
- Topic category
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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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indicator
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agriculture
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monitoring
-
monitoring
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nitrogen
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nitrogen
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- GEMET themes
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agriculture
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Associated resource
- Association Type
- Part of same structured set of data held in a computer
- Metadata Reference
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- Deutsch
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- UTF8
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- Français
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- UTF8
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- English
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- Subtopic Category
- L1 Environmental Protection, Noise
Digital transfer options
Digital transfer options
- OnLine resource
Digital transfer options
- OnLine resource
Digital transfer options
- OnLine resource
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- EPSG:2056
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- urn:uuid/dd37fd6e-3c02-450d-be10-56e5ff84fa0b
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- Deutsch
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- Language
- Français
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- UTF8
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- Italiano
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- UTF8
- Language
- English
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Type of resource
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https://geocat-dev.dev.bgdi.ch/geonetwork/srv/api/records/fccadc73-2d1b-4ebd-9938-fb74e6ab80b9
- Date info (Creation)
- 2026-05-07T07:17:03.49289Z
- Date info (Revision)
- 2026-06-02T10:09:37.803396Z
- Date info (Creation)
- 2026-04-28T06:21:28.680024Z
Metadata standard
- Title
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ISO19115.3-2018.che
