Published on 8 January 2024

swissALTI3D

swissALTI3D is an extremely precise digital elevation model which describes the surface of Switzerland without vegetation and development. It is updated every six years. 

The high precision digital elevation model of Switzerland

Applications

swissALTI^3D can be used for a number of different applications and offers an ideal basis for a wide variety of tasks. For example, it can be used:

• as a basic height data-set in a geographic information system
• as a basis for 3D visualisations, simulations and visibility analyses
• as a basis for mapping small structures and forest paths
• as a planning tool in the fields of spatial planning, telecommunications, natural hazards and forestry
• as a basis for ortho-rectification of aerial and satellite images

Terms of use

Additional information

• Technical details

  Structure

  The data are delivered as a grid with an aperture width of 0.5 m or 2 m. The data are delivered by complete 1 km² tiles. The spatial density of the data is not always high enough to provide the smallest aperture width (0.5 m). In that case, the data are oversampled. 

  Format, resolution and file sizes :

  • Cloud Optimized Geotiff (COG),  LZW compression
    0.5 m COG: ~ 26 MB / tile, 770 GB / full coverage
    2 m COG: ~ 1 MB / tile, 44 GB / full coverage
  • ASCII X,Y,Z single space
    0.5 m ASCII:  ~ 120 MB / tile, 5.2 TB / full coverage
    2 m ASCII: ~ 6 MB / tile, 265 GB / full coverage
  • ESRI ASCII GRID (on request)

  Tiling: ~ 43500 tiles of 1 km by 1 km.

  Coordinate system

  swissALTI^3D is available in the current Swiss coordinate system:

  • LV95 LN02

  Quality

  The information provided corresponds to the accuracies (1 sigma) of all three dimensions. The spatial distribution of these different kinds of data is available in the release note (available only in German or French).

  New generation of LiDAR data : 0.3 m

  Previous generation of LiDAR data (less than 2,000 metres above sea level): 0.5 m

  Stereo correlation  (more than 2,000 metres above sea level): 1 to 3 m

  Manual updates (individual points, breaklines and areas): 0.1 m to 1 m

• Documents

  Almost all publications concerning swissALTI^3D  are only available in German and French. Please select your preferred language in the navigation bar to view the desired document.

• Sample data

  Sample data: swissALTI3D LV95 LN02

  • TIF + TFW
  • ESRI ASCII GRID
  • XYZ

  The sample data show their type and format. They are free of charge and may be used for test purposes only. It is not permitted to include them in a product. 
  

• Links

  • swissALTI3D Hillshade
  • The Topographic Landscape Model TLM

swissALTI3D - Download