DSS
Federal Office for the Environment FOEN
Substances that are dangerous for the environment can enter the environment from landfill, decommissioned industrial plants or accident sites. In Switzerland there are approximately 38,000 such contaminated sites, of which about 13'800 have been assessed for remediation. The current drop in the number of sites requiring investigation is a measure of the progress made so far in the remediation of contaminated sites.
good
positive
The remediation of contaminated sites will be largely finished in around 20 years. This means that over the next few years there will be a continuous reduction in the number of sites needing investigation. At the same time, the number of sites assigned to other categories will increase in the medium term as the sites that have been inspected are definitively classified. In the long term, the number of sites requiring monitoring and remediation will fall until the only sites remaining can be classified either as “no harmful or unwanted effects” or as “requiring neither monitoring nor remediation”.
As the site classifications are specific to Switzerland, no international comparisons can be made for this Indicator.
Statistical evaluation of annual data from the registers for contaminated sites at canton and federal level (VBS, BAV, BAZL, FEDRO).
| Targeted trend | Initial value | Final value | Variation in % | Observed trend | Assessment |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Decrease | Average 2010-2012 | Average 2023-2025 | (3) -56%, (4) -60%, (5) 67% | (1) Decrease, (2) Growth, (3) Decrease, (4) Decrease, (5) Growth | positive |
| 3) requiring investigation, (4) requiring monitoring, (5) requiring remediation | |||||
