geocat.ch
Monitoring of the Swiss Agri-Environmental System – Nitrogen Balance
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. 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.
The agri-environmental indicator “nitrogen balance” is a gross surface balance calculated using the OECD method. Nitrogen enters agricultural land through inputs such as fertilizers, seeds, nitrogen fixation, and nitrogen deposition. Plant growth removes nitrogen from the soil, which is subsequently removed from the field in the form of yields (including pasture and removed crop residues) (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, reduced drinking water quality, or air pollution. A more detailed description of the methodology and the data sources used is available for download on geocat.
The published dataset comprises a database containing the indicators for 2021, 2022, 2023 and 2024, 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
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
- Date (Revision)
- 2024-01
- Status
- On going
Owner
Point of contact
Processor
- Spatial representation type
- Vector
Spatial resolution
Equivalent scale
- Denominator
- 200000
- Temporal resolution
-
P1Y0M0DT0H0M0S
- Topic category
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- S Farming
Extent
Extent
- Description
-
Switzerland
))
- Maintenance and update frequency
- Annually
- geocat.ch
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-
agricultural exploitation
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- GEMET
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-
nitrogen
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nitrogen
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monitoring
-
monitoring
-
agriculture
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indicator
-
indicator
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- GEMET themes
-
-
agriculture
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Associated resource
- Association Type
- Part of same structured set of data held in a computer
- Metadata Reference
- Language
- Deutsch
- Character encoding
- UTF8
- Language
- Français
- Character encoding
- UTF8
- Language
- English
- Character encoding
- UTF8
- Language
- Italiano
- Character encoding
- UTF8
- Language
- Rumantsch
- Character encoding
- UTF8
- Subtopic Category
- L1 Environmental Protection, Noise
Digital transfer options
- OnLine resource
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Projektberschreibung
Linkt to the project descrition
- OnLine resource
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Lade von Webseite herunter
Documentation of the data
Digital transfer options
- OnLine resource
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STAC Browser
Digital transfer options
- OnLine resource
-
WMS-BGDI service,
- OnLine resource
-
WMTS-BGDI service,
- OnLine resource
-
STAC Browser
Link to data access
Digital transfer options
- OnLine resource
-
Vorschau map.geo.admin.ch
Data preview
- Reference system identifier
- EPSG:2056
- Title
-
Stil der Ressource für ArcGIS (LYR)
- Title
-
Stil der Ressource für ArcGIS (LYR)
- Title
-
Stil der Ressource für QGIS
Metadata
- Metadata identifier
- urn:uuid/dd37fd6e-3c02-450d-be10-56e5ff84fa0b
- Language
- Deutsch
- Character encoding
- UTF8
- Language
- Français
- Character encoding
- UTF8
- Language
- Italiano
- Character encoding
- UTF8
- Language
- English
- Character encoding
- UTF8
Point of contact
Type of resource
- Resource scope
- Series
- Metadata linkage
-
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)
- 2026-09-10T07:33:41.284531Z
- Date info (Creation)
- 2026-04-28T06:21:28.680024Z
Metadata standard
- Title
-
ISO19115.3-2018.che
