Swisstopo
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(German) Bundesamt für Landestopografie (French) Office fédéral de topographie (Italian) Ufficio federale di topografia (Romansh) Uffizi federal da topografia |
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 Building in Wabern. |
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| Agency overview | |
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| Jurisdiction | Federal administration of Switzerland |
| Headquarters | Wabern |
| Minister responsible | |
| Parent agency | Federal Department of Defence, Civil Protection and Sports |
| Website | www.swisstopo.admin.ch |
Swisstopo is the official name for the Swiss Federal Office of Topography (in German: Bundesamt für Landestopografie; French: Office fédéral de topographie; Italian: Ufficio federale di topografia; Romansh: Uffizi federal da topografia), Switzerland's national mapping agency.
The current pseudo-English name was made official in 2002. It had been in use as the domain name for the institute's homepage, swisstopo.ch, since 1997.
The main class of products produced by Swisstopo are topographical maps on seven different scales. Swiss maps have been praised for their accuracy and quality.
The numbering system of Swiss regular maps (apart from composites) is directly based on the geographical situation. A map number is always one higher than the map number of the adjacent map to the west, and one lower than the adjacent map to the east. From north to south, the numbers differ by 20 for the scale 1:25.000, 10 for the scale 1:50.000 and 5 for the scale 1:100.000. However, as can be seen on the Seite nicht gefunden, there are some exceptions to this rule: Switzerland is a little bit too large to be only 20 1:25.000 maps wide. Instead of choosing another system, the map to the east of 1199 Scuol is called 1199bis Piz Lad. The same is true for some maps at scale 1:50.000.
In 1809, the first topographical surveys of Switzerland took place on a confederate, military level. They took place in the north-eastern area and were led by Hans Conrad Finsler. Measurements in the alpine region started in 1825 with triangulations by Antoine-Joseph Buchwalder. This work would be finished in 1837 by Johannes Eschmann. At New Year 1838, the Topographical Bureau (Eidgenössisches Topographisches Bureau) was founded in Carouge, Geneve by Guillaume Henri Dufour. This bureau published its first map the same year, the Carte topographique du Canton de Genève. Topographic surveys also started in the alpine regions of Switzerland. These had their first results in 1845, a year later than planned, when a map scaled 1:100.000 was published. This was the start of what are termed Dufourkarten (Dufour's Maps). The topographic survey finished in 1862. To honour Dufour, the Swiss government decided to rename the highest peak on the Dufourkarten from Höchste Spitze to Dufourspitze: it still carries that name today. In 1863, the SAC published a 1:50.000 map of the region Tödi, based on unpublished survey material. A year later, the last map of the Dufourkarten was published, and the following year, Dufour retired and Hermann Siegfried became Chief of the Topographical Bureau.
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Wikipedia