New national drought platform – Spatialists

Yesterday, the Federal Government has launched a new national platform to monitor draught risks. The platform was jointly developed by the Federal Office for the Environment (FOEN), MeteoSwiss, and Swisstopo. From the press release (in German, in French):

The drought platform provides standardized information on the current drought situation in the various regions of Switzerland as well as forecasts for the next four weeks. Data on past events can also be retrieved. Existing monitoring networks and forecasting models have been supplemented with new information based on satellite data and long-term forecasts, e.g. for precipitation. Measurement data on soil moisture and water temperatures is also expected to be integrated from 2026.

There is also an introductory video in English, in German, and in French.

In the drill-down view, the National Drought Platform offers a lot of detail about the monitoring regions. Much more data is available beneath the "fold". — In the drill-down view, the National Drought Platform offers a lot of detail about the monitoring regions. Much more data is available beneath the “fold”.

The National Drought Platform offers data on:

Particularly interesting for geospatial professionals: The state of the vegetation is based on the so-called Vegetation Health Index (VHI) which is in turn based on analysis of remote sensing data.¹

Footnotes

Transparency note: My employer has made a small contribution to the processing.↩︎