Global warming is also increasing the risk of heat waves, summer droughts and heavy precipitation in Switzerland as elsewhere. Municipalities are taking a range of measures to prepare for the effects of climate change. The FOEN's online tool helps them evaluate the risks and prepare accordingly. It also provides recommendations for action and presents successful examples from other municipalities.
Global warming and its effects pose major challenges for Swiss communes. The FOEN's ‘Adaptation to climate change’ online tool focuses on the following sectors:
- Coping with natural events (e.g. floods, landslides, forest fires)
- Biodiversity (e.g. the spread of invasive alien species)
- Energy production (e.g. declining run-of-river power production)
- Health (e.g. emerging pathogens)
- Agriculture (e.g. reduced availability of water)
- Planning, construction and maintenance (e.g. cooling requirements, surface run-off, green space maintenance)
- Tourism (loss of income in winter)
- Forest management (e.g. drought stress)
- Water management (e.g. scarcity of drinking and industrial water)
The online tool not only shows the risks for each sector but also proposes suitable adaptation measures, presents examples of specific measures and provides further information.
The online tool is constantly growing as users add new measures and assign them to a sector; an thus make them available to other municipalities.
The use of the ‘Adaptation to climate change’ online tool for municipalities is free of charge. A login is required, which you can apply for when you first visit the online tool:
BAFU: Anpassung an den Klimawandel – Online-Tool für Gemeinden
(in German, French and Italian)
Last modification 21.08.2025
