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swissBOUNDARIES3D

swissBOUNDARIES3D contains all administrative units and national boundaries of Switzerland and the Principality of Liechtenstein in vector form. It is based on an optimised data model for Switzerland and conforms to the data of the Swiss Federal Statistical Office.

boundaries3D

 

Administrative units of Switzerland

Update 2023: seven new political municipalities
The latest edition of swissBOUNDARIES3D contains seven new municipalities created through fusions of 16 old municipalities.

  • Canton of Aargau: Herznach-Ueken, Menziken
  • Canton of Bern: Münchenbuchsee
  • Canton of Jura: Damphreux-Lugnez, Les Breuleux
  • Canton of St. Gallen: Neckertal
  • Canton of Zurich: Andelfingen

 

Applications

Thanks to its simple and clearly defined data structure, swissBOUNDARIES3D can be used for a broad variety of tasks:

  • Analyses requiring a spatial reference to the administrative divisions of Switzerland
  • Use in combination with other geographic data sets
  • Visual background for orientation in GIS, CAD and navigation systems
  • Wide-area statistical analyses and simulations
  • Reference data set for the development of information systems

Terms of use

Additional information

Technical Details

Structure

swissBOUNDARIES3D comprises  5 information layers:

  • Administrative boundaries (national, cantonal, district and municipal boundaries), line geometry
  • Administrative base units (e.g. municipalities), surface geometry (polygons)
  • Districts, surface geometry (polygons)
  • Cantons, surface geometry (polygons)
  • National territories, surface geometry (polygons)
     

To produce the third dimension, the administrative boundaries were projected on to the digital elevation model swissALTI3D. The lines and contours are therefore geometrically specified as three-dimensional points (x, y, z).

The swissBOUNDARIES3D perimeter includes Switzerland, the Principality of Liechtenstein and the exclaves in neighbouring countries. In addition to political municipalities, areas such as the State Forest of Galm, lakes and other common areas larger than 5 km2 which are not assigned to a specific municipality are also designated as independent surfaces.

File formats

swissBOUNDARIES3D is available in the following data formats:

  • ESRI File Geodatabase
  • ESRI Shapefile
  • DXF (please order data by email at geodata@swisstopo.ch)
  • Interlis 2

Coordinate systems

  • LV95 LN02

Updating

Updating is based on information provided by the Cadastral Survey (CS) and the Federal Statistical Office. swissBOUNDARIES3D is always fully updated at the beginning of the year. When municipality fusions take place during the year, swisstopo will publish a special update as soon as possible. In this case, the special edition of swissBOUNDARIES3D includes only selective adjustments related to the fusion.

Geometric enhancement

The generalised data of GG25 at the 1:25,000 scale were imported into swissBOUNDARIES3D.The geometry of the data set is being continually improved through the integration of Cadastral Survey data, which are derived from the surveying and measurement processes for national borders. The progress of these processes is published in each information update.

Quality

  • Full national coverage in homogenous form and quality 
  • Geometric accuracy ± 0.5 m in position and elevation
  • Stable and unambiguous object identification 
  • Simple structure 

Documents

Almost all publications concerning swissBOUNDARIES3D are only available in German and French. Please select your preferred language in the navigation bar to view the desired document.

swissBOUNDARIES3D - Access to geodata


Federal Office of Topography swisstopo Seftigenstrasse 264
P.O. Box
3084 Wabern
Tel.
+41 58 469 01 11

E-mail

Federal Office of Topography swisstopo

Seftigenstrasse 264
P.O. Box
3084 Wabern

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