Topic Selection and Structure in the National Atlas of Switzerland

Vomsattel, Sieber and Hurni trace the thematic expansion of the digital Atlas of Switzerland: the 2000 edition covered 250 topics in society, economy, state and politics; the 2004 edition contained about 1,000 topics and added nature and environment; and the 2010 edition contained about 2,000 topics, with transport, energy and communication added. At the time of the account, the current online atlas contained about 160 themes and was still expanding, with categories including History and Future, Landscape and Space, Tourism and Leisure Time, Portrait of Switzerland and Global Switzerland. Topic selection draws on the project’s socio-economic context, earlier editions, other atlases and geoportals, user activity tracking and direct feedback. The authors describe constraints imposed by the conceptual framework, politics, funding, technical implementation, available data and visualization options. They explain the role of hierarchical thematic navigation and outline plans for maps on current issues and visually and technically ambitious flagship maps, while considering locality-based access and storytelling as possible alternatives to menu-based access.