Reference frame change to LV95

Initial situation

In its meeting on May 28, 2013, the government approved the concept and specifications for the introduction of the new LV95 coordinate reference frame in the official cadastral survey and commissioned the Civil Engineering and Geoinformation Office with its implementation. the new LV95 reference frame is based on the 1995 national survey created using GPS measurements, which replaces the old surveying principles from 1903. In accordance with a government decree, all cadastral survey data was converted to LV95 by the end of February 2014. All  geodata/GIS data from the National Administration was converted to the new reference framework by the end of 2020.

The definition of a geodetic reference system and the associated reference frames is an infrastructure of enormous importance for a state. This defines and provides the geometric basis for all georeferenced data across its entire territory. The geodata valid today is still based on the more than 100-year-old national survey of 1903 (LV03). The new technologies of electronic distance measurement and, above all, satellite-based surveying and positioning (GNSS) enable users to achieve measurement accuracies that are better than the existing bases and reveal their weaknesses. This contradicts the requirement that the reference should be of superior quality. In practice, complex corrections and adjustments are therefore necessary. However, modern IT and the combination of data from a wide variety of sources also place increased demands on the geodetic bases. In terms of economic optimization, their renewal is urgently necessary and justified.

The LV95 reference frame

The coordinate values are no longer referred to as Y or X, but as E (easting) or N (northing). To avoid confusion with the old coordinates (previously 5 or 6 digits), the coordinate values in LV95 now have 7 digits.
In addition, the changeover to LV95 corrects the errors of the old reference frame from 1903. The data must be converted to the new reference frame using a special mathematical procedure.

Bezugsrahmenwechsel auf LV95