HILACOS Historical Land Cover Switzerland

HILACOS Historical Land Cover

Historical land use/ land cover (LULC) information is crucial for a number of questions in the context of global change research (historical C-balances, land-use climate interactions, long-term sustainability of land-use). HILACOS is a database project with the aim to collect historical LULC information for Switzerland. The database contains data generated during WSL and external projects as well as metadata on other historical LULC related sources of information (e.g. historical maps).

So far HILACOS includes exclusively spatial data (GIS data/ historical maps). However, the database design is open to additionally integrate historical statistical land cover information and historical photographs. HILACOS ensures the consistent data management of WSL's historical LULC information and thus facilitates data access and use.

Contact:

- Urs Gimmi, Matthias Bürgi (Landscape Ecology group)

- For nationwide historical maps (Siegfried maps, Dufour original surveys, Schmidkarte) contact Martin Hägeli

EXAMPLES

Land cover of the projected Sihlsee area including the location of rare wetland plant species. Mapped by the botanist Düggeli in 1903.

Spatial distribution of wood pasture and forest litter collecting during the firest half of the 20^th century in the upper Swiss Rhone valley (blue=wood pasture only; red=litter collecting only; purple=combined practice). From Gimmi et al. Ecosystems 2008.