Swiss Land Use in the European Context

Until now there has been no land cover data for Switzerland which was compatible with European classifications. This deficiency has now been eliminated by the Swiss Federal Statistical Office (SFSO) and the Swiss Agency for the Environment (SAEFL). This brochure describes the methods and data sets which have been used during the integration of the Swiss Land Use Statistics into the system used for the CORINE Land Cover classification within the European Union. During these operations the base data set of the Swiss Land Use Statistics 1979/85 was reclassified and spatially generalized to correspond with categories at Level 2 of CORINE Land Cover using an existing digital soil suitability map as further modelling background. With the help of a geographical information system a grid data set with 13 land cover categories was generated from which corresponding polygonal data has been derived.