Land Use
| Land use |
|||
|---|---|---|---|
| Main areas | Surface (in %) |
Land use | Surface (in ha) |
| Surfaces of housing and infrastructure |
|
Building areas | 137,564 |
| Industrial areas | 20,233 | ||
| Special infrastructure areas | 16,111 | ||
| Green spaces and recreation areas | 15,860 | ||
| Transportation areas | 89,329 | ||
| Agricultural land |
|
Orchards, vineyards, horticulture | 60,956 |
| Arable land, local pastures | 926,378 | ||
| Alpine pastures | 537,802 | ||
| Forests |
|
Forest | 1,102,160 |
| Scrub forests | 60,514 | ||
| Other woodlands | 108,978 | ||
| Unproductive areas |
|
Lakes | 142,234 |
| Rivers | 31,724 | ||
| Unproductive vegetation | 263,051 | ||
| Unvegetated surfaces | 615,597 | ||
The Swiss territory is divided into four major types of land use. As of 2001, 36.9% of the land in Switzerland was used for farming. 30.8% of the country is covered with forests and woodlands, with an additional 6.8% covered with houses or buildings. About one-fourth (25.5%) of the country is either mountains, lakes or rivers and is categorised as unproductive.
Read more about this topic: Geography Of Switzerland
Famous quotes containing the word land:
“Before the land rose out of the ocean, and became dry land, chaos reigned; and between high and low water mark, where she is partially disrobed and rising, a sort of chaos reigns still, which only anomalous creatures can inhabit.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“A land of meanness, sophistry and mist.
Each breeze from foggy mount and marshy plain
Dilutes with drivel every drizzly brain.”
—George Gordon Noel Byron (1788–1824)