Methodology

The nine dimensions

VivaMap covers nine dimensions chosen for their measurable impact on daily life:

• Noise — exposure to road, rail, and aircraft noise against WHO thresholds. Source: FOEN sonBASE model and FOCA noise registry.
• Air quality — NO₂, PM10, and PM2.5 compared to WHO and Swiss OAPC limits. Source: FOEN immission maps.
• Public transport — access weighted by frequency and distance. Source: ARE public-transport quality classes.
• Education & culture — proximity to schools, libraries, museums, theatres, playgrounds. Source: OpenStreetMap.
• Nightlife & dining — density of restaurants, bars, cafés, pubs. Source: OpenStreetMap.
• Nature & green spaces — vegetation coverage and built-area openness. Sources: FSO Arealstatistik, OSM building footprints.
• Health — access to doctors, clinics, and hospitals, weighted by type. Source: OpenStreetMap.
• Taxation — total tax burden (married couple, 70/30 income split, CHF 125,000 gross, 1 child). Source: FTA tax calculator 2025.
• Sunshine — annual mean global solar irradiation accounting for terrain. Source: SFOE solar atlas, 50 m grid.

Each dimension receives a 0-10 score independently. You can browse each dimension on its own or combine several with personal weights.

The 0-10 scale

For most dimensions, the score uses percentile-based normalization across all of Switzerland: a commune at the 80th percentile receives a score of 8.0, regardless of the absolute values observed for that dimension. This normalization keeps the scale interpretable across dimensions — a 7 for noise and a 7 for transport both mean “better than 70 % of Swiss communes on this criterion”.

• Noise — absolute WHO thresholds: <45 dB → 10, >65 dB → 0. A public-health threshold is more meaningful than a relative ranking.
• Public transport — ARE quality classes (A=10, B=8, …, E=2, outside any class=0). Already officially calibrated categories.
• Natural hazards — FOEN colour codes: white=10, yellow=6, blue=3, red=0.

For dimensions whose meaning is inverted (low noise = good, low taxes = good), the score is internally inverted so “10 = better” holds across the entire interface.

Two spatial resolutions: from canton to neighborhood

Depending on zoom level, VivaMap computes scores at different resolutions:

The finer resolution is not obtained by disaggregating the commune. Each hexagon is re-evaluated against the original spatial data (noise rasters, transport stops, land-cover polygons, etc.). A heavily trafficked street crossing an otherwise quiet commune will have a lower local score than the commune-wide average.

Data sources

VivaMap uses only official open sources:

• FSO — communes, cantons, Arealstatistik (land statistics).
• FOEN — noise maps, pollutant immission maps, natural hazards.
• ARE — public-transport quality classes, agglomerations.
• SFOE — solar potential atlas.
• FTA — cantonal tax calculator.
• swisstopo — base map, elevation model, building register.
• OpenStreetMap — points of interest (health, education, hospitality).

The Data sources page lists every source with its licence, update cadence, and direct link to the official portal.

Profiles or personal weights

The interface offers two modes:

• Family — education and quietness as priorities.
• Young professional — transport and dining.
• Retirement — quietness, nature, health, sunshine.
• Nature — air, quietness, green spaces maximised.

The “My criteria” button gives full control over the nine sliders. Each combined score is a weighted average of the nine individual scores.

Methodological limits

A few caveats:

• OpenStreetMap is not exhaustive. Rural areas are sometimes less well mapped than agglomerations, which can underestimate POI density in some valleys.
• The taxation score reflects a single reference profile (married couple, CHF 125,000, 1 child). For a single person at CHF 80,000 or an affluent retiree, the relative ranking of communes changes.
• Sunshine is an annual measure. A deep valley can be very sunny in summer and shadowed in winter — the annual mean masks this variation.
• Scores are relative to Switzerland. A 5 in air quality is not “average” in absolute terms; it is “average for Switzerland”, which already ranks among the best-graded countries internationally.
• Private services not listed on OpenStreetMap (private doctors, unmapped private schools) are not counted: the score may underestimate the actual offer in some neighborhoods.

Update cadence

Scores are recomputed whenever a source publishes a major update: yearly for most (Arealstatistik, FTA taxes, ARE quality classes), quarterly for OpenStreetMap.