geocat.ch
Assessment of the Chemical Water Status: Nitrate
Within the National Surface Water Quality Monitoring Programme (NAWA), water quality is recorded jointly by the federal and cantonal authorities at around 100 monitoring stations. The chemical water status is assessed on the basis of the nitrate concentration by the “Physicochemical Water Quality, Nutrients” method in the Modular Stepwise Procedure (MSP / MSK www.modul-stufen-konzept.ch). Nitrogen is an essential nutrient for aquatic organisms and is taken up by plants mainly in the form of nitrates (NO3-). Most of the inorganic nitrogen present in surface waters is in the form of nitrate. Limitation of algae and plant growth due to low nitrate levels is the exception in Swiss waters. No negative effects on the biocoenoses in the water caused by nitrate concentrations of less than 10 mg/l N are observed. Nitrate concentrations above 1.5 mg/l N are generally indicative of runoff and leaching from agricultural land or infiltration of municipal wastewater. The numerical requirement in the Waters Protection Ordinance for nitrate in surface waters used as a source of drinking water is 5.6 mg/l.
Simple
Identification info
- Alternate title
-
Nitrate
- Date (Creation)
- 2014-03-26
- Citation identifier
- ch.bafu.gewaesserschutz-chemischer_zustand_nitrat
Citation identifier
Point of contact
Responsible party
- Organisation name
-
Federal Office for the Environment / Hydrology Division
- Voice
-
+41 58 464 71 87
- Facsimile
-
+41 58 464 76 81
Address
- City
-
Bern
- Postal code
-
3003
- Country
-
CH
- Electronic mail address
-
hydrologie@bafu.adm hydrologie@bafu.admin.ch
- Website
- https://www.bafu.admin.ch/bafu/de/home/amt/abteilungen-sektionen/abteilung-hydrologie.html ( WWW:LINK )
- Role
- Point of contact
- Last Name
-
BAFU Hydrologie
- Organisation Acronym
-
FOEN
Point of contact
Responsible party
- Organisation name
-
Federal Office for the Environment
- Position name
-
Abteilung Wasser
- Voice
-
+41 58 462 69 69
- Facsimile
-
+41 58 463 03 71
Address
- City
-
Bern
- Postal code
-
3003
- Country
-
CH
- Electronic mail address
-
wasser@bafu.adm wasser@bafu.admin.ch
- Streetname
-
Postfach
- Website
- https://www.bafu.admin.ch/bafu/de/home/amt/abteilungen-sektionen/abteilung-wasser.html ( WWW:LINK )
- Role
- Point of contact
- Last Name
-
BAFU Wasser
- Organisation Acronym
-
BAFU
- Maintenance and update frequency
- Annually
-
GEMET
-
-
environment
-
-
geocat.ch
-
-
FSDI Federal Spatial Data Infrastructure
-
-
geocat.ch
-
-
watercourse
-
opendata.swiss
-
- Use constraints
- Other restrictions
- Other constraints
- Opendata OPEN: Open use.
- Denominator
- 0
- Language
- Deutsch
- Character set
- 8859 Part 1
- Topic category
-
- I Inland Waters
Extent
- Description
-
Switzerland
))
- Basic geodata identifier type
- Federal
- Distribution format
-
-
ESRI File Geodatabase FileGDB (GDB)
()
-
OGC Geopackage (GPKG)
()
-
ESRI File Geodatabase FileGDB (GDB)
()
- OnLine resource
-
Preview map.geo.admin.ch
(
MAP:Preview
)
Preview map.geo.admin.ch
- OnLine resource
-
ch.bafu.gewaesserschutz-chemischer_zustand_nitrat
(
OGC:WMS
)
WMS-FSDI service, layer "Nitrate"
- OnLine resource
-
STAC Browser
(
WWW:DOWNLOAD-URL
)
Download server from geo.admin.ch
- OnLine resource
-
National Surface Water Quality Monitoring Programme (NAWA)
(
WWW:LINK
)
Link to description
- OnLine resource
-
RESTful API from geo.admin.ch
(
ESRI:REST
)
RESTful API from geo.admin.ch
- Geometric object type
- Point
- Reference system identifier
- EPSG:2056
Metadata
- Metadata language
- Deutsch
- Character set
- UTF8
- Parent identifier
-
Nationale Beobachtung Oberflächengewässerqualität (NAWA)
967c7855-9b88-47ed-b370-d3bf5530fc49
- Hierarchy level
- Dataset
- Date stamp
- 2025-07-11T07:23:50.885Z
- Metadata standard name
-
GM03Core
- Metadata standard version
-
1.0
Metadata author
Responsible party
- Organisation name
-
Federal Office for the Environment
- Position name
-
Abteilung Wasser
- Voice
-
+41 58 462 69 69
- Facsimile
-
+41 58 463 03 71
Address
- City
-
Bern
- Postal code
-
3003
- Country
-
CH
- Electronic mail address
-
wasser@bafu.adm wasser@bafu.admin.ch
- Streetname
-
Postfach
- Protocol
-
WWW:LINK
- Role
- Point of contact
- Last Name
-
BAFU Wasser
- Organisation Acronym
-
BAFU
Metadata author
Metadata author
Responsible party
- Organisation name
-
Federal Office for the Environment / Hydrology Division
- Voice
-
+41 58 464 71 87
- Facsimile
-
+41 58 464 76 81
Address
- City
-
Bern
- Postal code
-
3003
- Country
-
CH
- Electronic mail address
-
hydrologie@bafu.adm hydrologie@bafu.admin.ch
- Website
- https://www.bafu.admin.ch/bafu/de/home/amt/abteilungen-sektionen/abteilung-hydrologie.html ( WWW:LINK )
- Role
- Point of contact
- Last Name
-
BAFU Hydrologie
- Organisation Acronym
-
FOEN
