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Who are the champions and dunce of urban green spaces in Switzerland?
375 satellite images reveal the plant cover of 54 Swiss localities. Lugano is champion of big cities with 62%, while Geneva suffocates at the back of the ranking.
In summer, cities become ovens. The day, concrete and asphalt warm up. At night, the hot air struggles to evacuate. The current heat wave is proof. Green spaces, and particularly trees, are therefore essential in our urban environments. They work as natural air conditioning, refresh the air and provide shade.
Thanks to 375 satellite images of the Copernicus program, we have created a map of summer plant cover for the 1920s, 2023 and 2024, which includes the entire Swiss territory. For this, we compared the 54 cities and localities with more than 20,000 inhabitants. The study reveals for the first time the true extent of Green spaces in town And what municipalities are the good students in terms of urban renaturation. The determining criterion is the vegetation index by normalized difference (NDVI). If it is greater than 0.5, surfaces are considered highly vegetated.
The municipalities of Riehen (BS), Wädenswil (ZH) and Köniz (BE) have the highest vegetation rate (NDVI value greater than 0.5) in their built areas. Riehen’s urbanized area has a plant cover exceeding 70%. In Wädenswil, it reaches almost 70%, while in Köniz, it amounts to 64%.
At the bottom of the ranking, we find the locality of Meyrin (GE) as well as the cities of Carouge (GE) and Geneva, each with less than a third of vegetable cover in their urbanized area.
Lugano leads the ten largest Swiss cities, with a value of 62%. Nearly a third of the urbanized areas even have a NDVI value greater than 0.8, comparable to that of the densest forests. Saint-Gall, with 58%, and Winterthur, 56%, respectively occupy the second and third places of the podium.
In addition to Geneva, the city of Basel is among the last ones in the ranking. Bern and Zurich have an average vegetable coverage of 50%, while Lausanne has 45%.
Geneva: few green spaces
With only 30% of green spaces, Geneva is the least green city in Switzerland. In districts like Sécheron, the Vives or the Vernets, the density of the constructions leaves little space for nature. Places of relaxation are available in several parks and along the banks. The peripheral districts, where urbanization is less dense (Servette, Petit-Saconnex, Boissière), offer small green spaces.
Lausanne: the city has several green spaces
Lausanne is in the average of major cities, with 45% of green spaces in urban areas, with more than 0.5 of NDVI. The sectors close to the station, the city center as well as the important project of the Plaines-du-Loup are characterized by a strong presence of waterproof surfaces. THE MON-REPOS or Milan parks constitute real green lungs for the city. The peripheral districts also benefit from a continuous network of green spaces.
Zurich: residential districts benefit from an abundance of green spaces
Zurich, despite its more than 400,000 inhabitants, presents an NDVI index greater than 0.5 over almost half of its urban area. The vegetation is particularly rare in the old town, in Oerlikon and near the railways of the central station. However, many residential areas as well as the banks of the Limmat and Sihl are green. The forests of Käferberg and Weinegg form the largest continuous wooded areas in the urban space analyzed.
Basel: the city suffers from the absence of a large forest in one piece
Basel obtains relatively bad results. The sectors around stations, the historic center and industrial zones have a very waterproofed soil. The residential districts, the parks and the zoo contain a greater proportion of green spaces. The Basel Urban Region, however, suffers from the absence of a large forest in one piece.
Bern: The greenway along the AAR extends to the heart of the city
Bern is the greenest of the five major cities in Switzerland. Half of the urban surface has an index of vegetation greater than 0.5. Thirteen percent are even real forests (NDVI greater than 0.8). The historic center is dense, but neighborhoods like Länggasse or Breitenrain have green spaces. The wooded banks of the AAR also form a continuous green flow to the center.
When is Switzerland the greenest?
September is the month when vegetation is the most abundant in urban areas. On this point, cities are not different from the rest of Switzerland, as evaluated by the evaluation. On the other hand, vegetation is very rare in November and December. This animation illustrates the evolution of plant cover in Switzerland throughout the year.
We observe a median for the period from January to October, covering the years 2022 to 2025. For the months of November and December, we calculate an average based on the years 2017 to 2024. This national analysis was based on the study of 2,319 satellite images.
Translated from German by Emmanuelle Stevan
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