AtlasUrban Soils & WaterHiroaki Anamizu, Khyati Andrapiya, and Francis Schoups

Switzerland is known as “the water tower of Europe”, due to its richness in fresh water reserves stored in glaciers, lakes and aquifers, and from which the Swiss tap their drinking water. In the Zurich metropolitan area, vast underground networks have been developed throughout the centuries from communal wells to a pipe network of over 1550 kilometres.

This infrastructure extracts water from geological formations that have been developed over deep time. On the surface, soils and land use play a crucial role in the filtering, drainage, storage and preservation of these fresh water bodies.

Our territorial practices place the water reserves under increased pressure, further exacerbated by the climate crisis. In water-rich Switzerland, drought is no longer impossible. Facing this crisis, Swiss society and the City of Zurich are exploring alternative paths.