The following dashboard provides four different tabs where the area and density changes can be explored. Two of these tabs are interactive maps where the forest changes of Switzerland are displayed over time. A time slider provides an animated view of the area and density changes over the years from 1975 - 2020 in a five year intervall. The user can also choose to use the time slider manually to investigate a certain year for longer. If the user wishes to look at the changes in a more graphical way, an interactive line and bar chart is available. The line chart provides an overview of the area changes in Switzerland over the years, whereas the bar chart lets the user explore see the comparison of the forest area between the Swiss Cantons. On the top right of the maps and the graphs, there are multiple widgets for the user to choose from for a more in depth discovery.
Forests are vital to life on Earth. They purify the air we breathe, filter the water we drink, prevent erosion, and act as an important buffer against climate change. Our main goal was to investigate the forest area and analyse it throughout the period 1975-2020. On the map displaying the evolution over years, it is visible with the time slider that throughout the years, the forest area and the density of forests in Switzerland have increased. For example, if we take into consideration the forest area, back in 1975, in the canton of Zurich registered 47'943 ha, while in 2020, it rises to 50'260 ha. There are some exceptions, such as Basel Stadt, which had a reversed progress, because in 1975 it registered 1'373 ha, while in 2020 it shows decrease to 471 ha. Also the canton of Jura has been experiencing continous deforestation from 38'633 ha down to 36'290 ha since the year 1980. Looking at the forest density in Switzerland, a strong positive trend can be seen in the canton of Ticino, where in 1975 a density of 38.7 % can be seen, while in 2020, forests cover 50.4 % of the canton. On the other hand, Schaffhausen has not shown a significant change in forest density since 1975, as it has consistently stayed around the 42% mark. Generally, an increase of the forest area and density can be observed in the last 45 years. However, it is interesting to see that based on the line chart, that since 2018 there has been forest area lost throughout Switzerland, indicating an increase of urbanisation.
The Swiss federal forest law from 1991 had some positive and some negative aspects. The law was created in order to conserve the forest in its area and spatial distribution, to protect the forest as a near-natural community, to ensure that the forest can fulfil its functions, its protective, social and economic functions (forest functions) and to promote and maintain the forestry sector. It is furthermore intended to contribute to the protection of human life and important material assets against avalanches, landslides, erosion, rockfall etc. This law mainly prohibited deforestation. We can observe in the map that after 1991, some cantons like Bern and Zurich have slightly increased their forest area to increase the quality of life, since they are highly urbanized. On the other hand, cantons like Basel Stadt, Jura and Zug show a slight decrease in forest area and density due to the high demand for urbanisation. However, the deforestation most likely does not affect the environment in a hazardous way, as it is stated in the law, in exceptional cases a deforestation permit is granted if the applicants prove that there are important reasons for the deforestation, which outweigh the interest of forest conservation.