Environmental Data: LABES 2 Indicators of the Swiss Landscape Monitori...

README_LABES

This is the general readme for all LABES datasets.

LABES_1_Wald

Indicator 1 quantitatively describes the forest area of Switzerland and its change. The required data on forest area are calculated using the area statistics (Swiss Federal Statistical Office, SFSO).

LABES_2_Veraenderung_LW_Flaeche

Indicator 2 describes the quantitative change in Switzerland's agricultural area excluding summer pastures. It contributes to assessing the basic agricultural use, which is very important for the landscape. This has a significant impact on the character of the landscape and on biodiversity.

LABES_2a_Nutzungsvielfalt_in_der_LW_Flaeche

This indicator measures the average number of different uses of agricultural land in Switzerland. It is thus a measure of the diversity of agricultural land. The agricultural structure survey is used to record the diversity of use.

LABES_3_Flaechenverbrauch_siedlung

This indicator quantitatively describes land consumption for settlement and the change in Switzerland's settlement area based on data from Switzerland's land use statistics (Swiss Federal Statistical Office FSO).

LABES_4_VerkehrFlaecheLaenge

Indicator 4 describes the length and area of roads and railroads for the year 2020, as well as the changes between different points in time. The calculation of length and area consumption is based on the Topographic Landscape Model TLM and TLM3D of the Federal Office of Topography. Before 2014, changes were recorded in a sampling procedure based on landscape elements and extrapolated to subspaces and the whole of Switzerland. Since 2015, however, it has been possible to use data directly for the whole of Switzerland.

LABES_7_Versiegelung

The degree of imperviousness indicates the sealed surface area as a percentage. The LABES indicator 7 is surveyed with the area statistics Switzerland. The survey interval of the areal statistics is 12 years for the first 3 surveys and 9 years for the fourth survey of the areal statistics; therefore, short-term developments in the change of the sealed surface cannot be recorded.

LABES_8_Bauen_ausserhalb_Bauzone_neue_Berechnung

Indicator 8 quantitatively describes the Euclidean distance from each point of a 12.5x12.5m grid outside the building zone to the nearest building. This is a revision based on a new calculation method.

LABES_9_Zerschneidung

Transport infrastructure such as highways, connecting roads and railroads, as well as settlement areas divide a landscape into individual areas separated from each other. To measure the degree of landscape fragmentation, the metric of "effective mesh size" (meff) was used (Jaeger 2000). It expresses the probability that there are no separating elements, such as traffic routes or settlements, between two randomly selected points. The more separating elements cut up the landscape, the lower this probability and the smaller the effective mesh size.

LABES_11_Gewaesser

Indicator 11a describes the change in the length of watercourses in Switzerland between different points in time. The changes are systematically recorded on the basis of the changes in the national maps 1:25,000, later Vector25 and from about 2012 using TLM3D. With this evaluation protocol (2022), the sampling procedure of "Landschaft unter Druck" is used for the last time. It consists of 152 sampling rectangles in which the changes are recorded and extrapolated to the whole of Switzerland. From TLM3D (2020) onwards, the extrapolation is guaranteed for the entire area of Switzerland.

LABES_14_Licht

Light emissions in 500m resolution for entire Switzerland for the periode 2014-2020 using VIIRS-VCSML

LABES_15_NaturuberlasseneFlache

Areas left to nature are areas in which natural processes can take place essentially undisturbed and direct human influences determine the (current) development only to a small extent. In such areas, the composition of animal and plant communities differs from that in the cultivated landscape. The areas left to nature in Switzerland can be divided into "wilderness areas" in the forest (forest wilderness), areas left to nature in the high mountains (alpine fallow) and areas along water bodies (floodplains). The areas may or may not be accessible. Of central importance is the intensity of human activities.

LABES_17a_Soemmerungsweiden

Summer pastures make up the majority of extensively used agricultural land in Switzerland. Summer pastures are located at altitudes that do not allow intensive use of the land, as is the case in the Central Plateau. Fertiliser use is either non-existent or limited. The indicator helps to measure changes in a basic agricultural use that is very important for the mountain landscape. It is a major determinant of landscape character and biodiversity.

LABES_31a_Gewaesserabschnitte_frei_begehbar

Indicator 31a describes the accessibility of water bodies in Switzerland. Water bodies are popular recreational areas. In order to be used by the population, therefore they should be freely accessible.

LABES_32_Anlagefrei

For many people, "untouched landscape" is the very essence of nature. There are hardly any places left in Switzerland that have no human influence. But you can find regions where human influence is not so obvious. These are areas where no human buildings and installations can be seen. Areas free of facilities are therefore the most natural areas that can be found in Switzerland.

LABES_35_ErschliessungFussWanderwege

Indicator 35 describes the accessibility with footpaths and hiking trails less than 2m wide. The basis for this is the Topographic Landscape Model (TLM and TLM3D) of the Federal Office of Topography. The data are given in km/km2 and are broken down by land use. The land use categories settlement, forest and open land are extracted from the area statistics of the Federal Statistical Office. Contrary to the initial calculation in 2015, we have abandoned the official attribute "hiking trail", as it has been shown that official "hiking trails" are also routed over longer distances along major roads. The current definition has to do solely with the width of the path (max. width 2m) and not with the official designation. This is closer to the quality of a trail than the official designation "hiking trail".

LABES_36_Zersiedlung

As a metric for characterising urban sprawl, the measure of urban sprawl (Z or weighted urban permeation WUP) was first propagated by Jaeger et al. (2008). We use this measure here. Urban sprawl is expressed in DSE/m2. The metric was refined within the framework of the National Research Programme 54 "Sustainable settlement and infrastructure development" in the project "Landscape sprawl Switzerland - Quantitative analysis 1935 to 2002 and implications for spatial planning" (Jaeger et al. 2008).

LABES_NEU_2_Abgeschiedenheit

Remoteness implies distance from a reference. In the case of an actual journey through a remote landscape, this distance can mean the physical distance from society or from signs of civilisation. In solitude, individuals face the elements of nature and thus move a step away from the backing of security provided by civilised society. To calculate the remoteness of each grid cell per time period, the "Path Distance" ArcGIS tool is used. This calculates the cost between each grid cell and the settlement areas (pixels with >15 people) as the shortest trajectory. The surface distance is calculated from the horizontal and vertical distance (including the digital elevation model DHM25) and a cost grid, which assigns to each cell the costs incurred when passing through this area. As soon as the trajectory meets (or starts on) a road on which the settlement can be reached, the journey time by public transport or by private means of transport is calculated and the shorter of the two journey times is used.

LABES_NEU_7_Leitungen

This indicator shows the status of transmission lines in Switzerland and analyses the land cover on which these infrastructures are built. Transmission lines are assessed on the basis of TLM data. An extract from TLM_VERSORGUNGSBAUTE (OBJEKTART: Hochspannungsleitungen) is used to calculate the length consumption. In addition, the area statistics layer (NOLC04) is used to differentiate land types into different categories. The total length of transmission lines in Switzerland, in the different biogeographical regions and in the different cantons is calculated by overlay operations for year 2015 and year 2020 (see appendices for further details).

LABES_NEU_9_Windanlagen

This indicator shows the situation of wind energy in Switzerland. Firstly, we locate the current wind turbines and wind farms in Switzerland and compare their location with the wind speed map and the federal government's base map concerning the main wind potential areas. Secondly, we analyse the development of wind energy in Switzerland over the years and the efficiency of such structures.

LABES_NEU_12_Landwirtschaftliche_Intensitaet

This indicator shows the agricultural intensity in Switzerland using satellite data by calculating the NDVI values for each growing season and, in particular, observing the standard deviation of these values over the years. The remote sensing data used to calculate this indicator come from Sentinel-2 MSI and cover the whole of Switzerland. Sentinel-2 is a wide-area, high-resolution, multispectral imaging mission of ESA for monitoring vegetation, soil and water cover. Sentinel-2 Level-1C data were used, which are radiometrically and geometrically corrected top-of-atmosphere products. The corrections include orthorectification and spatial registration on a global reference system (combined UTM projection and WGS84 ellipsoid) with sub-pixel accuracy. Level 1C images are delivered in tiles of 100×100 km. A total of 11 tiles are needed to cover the extent of Switzerland.

LABES_NEU_14_StaedtischesGruen

This indicator shows the state of vegetation within urban areas in Switzerland. On the one hand, the entire vegetation period is considered, taking into account all data from mid-May to mid-September. On the other hand, an additional analysis focuses on the spring period from mid-May to the end of June in order to observe only the growing season, which in the vast majority of cases is not yet affected by drought stress. The remote sensing data used to calculate this indicator come from Sentinel-2 MSI and cover the whole of Switzerland. Sentinel-2 is a wide-area, high-resolution, multispectral imaging mission of ESA for monitoring vegetation, soil and water cover. Sentinel-2 Level-1C data were used, which are radiometrically and geometrically corrected top-of-atmosphere products. The corrections include orthorectification and spatial registration on a global reference system (combined UTM projection and WGS84 ellipsoid) with sub-pixel accuracy. Level 1C images are delivered in tiles of 100×100 km. A total of 11 tiles are required to cover the extent of Switzerland.

Labes_all_social_indicators_23_24_25_27_29_30_NEU16_NEU17_NEU18_NEU20_NEU22_NEU23

The social indicators for LABES were collected with a Swiss-wide representative survey. The first survey was conducted in 2011 (n = 2814 participants), the second in 2020 (n = 2090 participants). The “Auswertungsprotokolle” inform about the results of each indicator in 2020 and compared to the state of 2011. Indicator list: Indicator 23 Ortsbindung / place attachment Indicator 24 Landschaftliche Schönheit / visual landscape quality or beauty Indicator 25 Besonderheit (Eigenart und Vergangenheitsbezug)/ place identity Indicator 27 Wahrgenommener Informationsgehalt der Landschaft: Komplexität, Entdeckungspotenzial, Kohärenz, Lesbarkeit / Kaplans’ preference matrix: complexity, mystery, coherence, legibility Indicator 29 Faszination / soft fascination Indicator 30 Authentizität /authenticity Indicator Neu_16 Erholung und Landschaft (Erholungsindex, Zugang, Outdoorsport) / recreation and landscapes (recreationindex, access, outdoor sports) Indicator Neu_17 Beobachtete Landschaftscharakterisierung / perceived landscape charachterization Indicator Neu_18 Beobachtete Landschaftsveränderungen / perceived landscape changes Indicator Neu_20 Wahrgenommene Landschaftsqualität in den Grundnutzungen oder Texturen (Wald, Landwirtschaft, Siedlungsflächen, Gewässer)/ Perceived landscape quality in the different land use areas (forest, agriculture, settlement areas, water bodies) Indicator Neu_22 Gesamturteil zur wahrgenommenen Landschaftsqualität / overall satisfaction Indicator Neu_23 Kulturelle Landschafswerte / cultural values and services of the landscape