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
swissALTI3D 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
swissALTI3D 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 swissALTI3D 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
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.
P.O. Box
3084 Wabern
- Tel.
- +41 58 469 01 11