Farmland retreating in face of urban sprawl

Farmland is losing ground to development swissinfo.ch

Large swathes of farmland in Switzerland are being gobbled up each year by increasing urbanisation, according to new studies from the Federal Statistics Office.

The studies show that in the past 12 years, some 40 square kilometres of farmland were lost every year. The figures are the most accurate to date, and are based on a comparison of information contained in two surveys between 1979 and 1985 and 1992 and 1997.

They show that while farmland still accounts for the bulk of land use in terms of area, agriculture is continually losing ground. In flat areas, it has lost mainly to encroaching urbanisation while forests have replaced it in steep and remote regions.

Over the two survey periods, over three percent of the country’s usable farmland was lost, while settlement areas grew by just over 13 per cent.

The worst affected area is the so-called “central plain”, a strip of between 50 and 100 kilometres wide, which stretches from Lake Geneva in the southwest to Lake Constance in the northeast, and is Europe’s most densely-populated area.

Carlo Malaguerra, director of the Federal Statistical Office, said the new data would provide essential information for designing a land development policy which is in the best interests of the country.

He said that, as far as urban sprawl was concerned, the government might need to develop regulations governing new construction. He added that taller buildings might provide an answer.

What is also of concern, said Malaguerra, is the growth of settlements outside cities. “We have more and more construction in the countryside and this requires building access roads which in turn requires more land. It’s a vicious circle.”

In its 1996 report “Fundamentals of Town and Country Planning in Switzerland”, the federal government laid out its policies for achieving sustainable spatial development. The report urged that existing settlements develop inwards to spare the landscape from new construction.

by Paul Sufrin