New Swiss Height System
In the summer of 2024, swisstopo initiated the ‹New Swiss Height System› project. The aim is to modernise the current Swiss height reference system, which is over 100 years old and does not take into account the effects of the gravitational field.
What is at issue?
For more than a century, the dissemination of altimetry in Switzerland has been based on LN02, providing reliable and relatively accurate heights to users, particularly in official surveying. Today, with the advent of global measurement methods such as GNSS*, the system's shortcomings are becoming increasingly apparent.
*GNSS stands for ‹Global Navigation Satellite System› and is the standard acronym for the main satellite navigation systems: GPS (United States), Galileo (European Union), GLONASS (Russia) and Beidou (China).
The official height system in use in Switzerland is ‹LN02›, which stands for ‹National precise levelling 1902›. This system, which is over a hundred years old, is a system of ‹usual› altitudes. The effects of gravity have not been taken into account when calculating heights. LN02 heights are not unequivocal and depend on the path used for levelling.
This is the background to the project «New Swiss Height System», which is studying the introduction of a new height system in Switzerland from 2030. The working group's documents and results are published here.
How are heights defined?
What do we actually mean when we talk about height? And why are they important at all?
Index
Federal Office of Topography swisstopo
Seftigenstrasse 264
3084 Wabern