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Federal Office of Topography swisstopo

LV03

The national triangulation network (LV03) was established beginning about 1900 and today it is still valid for most surveys in Switzerland. The fundamental point of this network is the old observatory in Bern (coordinates 600 000 m / 200 000 m).

Old national survey LV03

The network is organized in three hierarchical levels and was measured primarily with angle measurements. The first order network consists of approx. 70 control points at a distance of 30 to 50 km to neighboring points, distributed over the entire country. Based on these points, the second order network was determined, which was in turn densified by the third order network. Thus, a total of approx. 3000 horizontal control points (category 1) are available with a relative accuracy of about 3 to 5 cm.
Netplan
Netplan

In the course of network maintenance, but especially after the introduction of electronic distance measuring instruments in the 1960s, various weaknesses were discovered, which lead to larger revision and re-triangulation campaigns, especially in western Switzerland and in the region of Basel.

In the 1980s, all of the observations of first and second order points were collected electronically and a diagnostic adjustment was carried out. Besides having a complete and uniform documentation of the whole process, it was essential to have accurately defined transformation parameters between the two networks in view of the new national control network LV95.

Comments about this page: Geodesy
Last updated: 20.05.2010

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Bruno Vogel
Head of Geodetic Control Points

Tel +41 31 963 22 79
Fax +41 31 963 24 59

Email to Bruno Vogel

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