In the article tourist management in two national parks in the Czech-German borderland are being compared,namely Bohemian ’Switzerland’(also known as Czech ’Switzerland’) and Saxon’Switzerland’.Situated on eithe...In the article tourist management in two national parks in the Czech-German borderland are being compared,namely Bohemian ’Switzerland’(also known as Czech ’Switzerland’) and Saxon’Switzerland’.Situated on either side of the state border,they feature the same type of geographical environment.Transport accessibility,transborder links and the hiking trail network are analyzed using methodology sourced from graph theory.The result of the analyses is a classification of tourist hubs and tourist centers,as well as an indication of the main directions of tourist flow.The German national park is decidedly more accessible but with a detrimental effect on the natural environment primarily due to its fragmentation by a dense network of tourist trails.In both parks trails enter the core zone(in theory a strict protection area) but this occurs on a larger scale on the German side.In the Czech national park a greater number of positive examples of managing tourist movements can be identified.Additionally,larger areas managed for dispersion,or from which tourists are generally excluded,are located there.展开更多
We assessed the risk of overweight and obesity for six large migrant groups in Switzerland. We used population-based survey data form the Swiss Migrant Health Survey 2010 and the Swiss Health Survey 2007. The sample c...We assessed the risk of overweight and obesity for six large migrant groups in Switzerland. We used population-based survey data form the Swiss Migrant Health Survey 2010 and the Swiss Health Survey 2007. The sample comprised permanent residents aged 17 - 64 years (n = 14,637). Multivariate logistic regressions have been used to estimate odds ratios (OR). Compared with Swiss nationals, the odds of being obese were 1.97 times higher for Turkish nationals (CI-95 1.26, 3.07), 1.73 times higher for Kosovan nationals (CI-95 1.09, 2.74) and 3.42 times higher for Serbs (CI-95 2.28, 5.12). The chance of being obese was not statistically different between Swiss nationals and those from Portugal, Italy, and Germany. The chance of being overweight or obese (BMI ≥ 25) was higher for migrants than for Swiss nationals. The respective odds were 1.54 times higher for nationals from Portugal (CI-95 1.13, 2.11), 2.05 times higher for those from Turkey (CI-95 1.50, 2.78), 2.67 times higher for those from Serbia (CI-95 1.93, 3.68), 2.68 times higher for those from Kosovo (CI-95 2.01, 3.56), and 2.16 times higher for nationals from Italy (CI-95 1.54, 3.02). We suggest that preventive initiatives should take into account the specific needs of migrants as well as the needs of persons with low education from all nationalities.展开更多
1. Introduction With the opening ceremony of the Gotthard Base Tunnel on 1 June 2016, a new world record was established: the commissioning of the longest railway tunnel in the world. Many challenges have been overcom...1. Introduction With the opening ceremony of the Gotthard Base Tunnel on 1 June 2016, a new world record was established: the commissioning of the longest railway tunnel in the world. Many challenges have been overcome and many technical innovations have been developed and considered in this project. As of 11 December 2016, the Gotthard Base Tunnel has been an integral part of the new timetable of the Swiss Federal Railways (SBB-CFF-FFS), and is in full operation. With a total length of 57 km and a cruising speed of 200 km·h^-1 for passenger trains, the Gotthard Base Tunnel reduces the journey time through the Alps by 40 min, significantly reducing the distance between the south and north of Europe.展开更多
Switzerland is one of the best tourism destinations in the world. Its development experience is valuable for Hebei, whose competitiveness is weak comparatively in spite of rich tourism resources. Specifically, the suc...Switzerland is one of the best tourism destinations in the world. Its development experience is valuable for Hebei, whose competitiveness is weak comparatively in spite of rich tourism resources. Specifically, the successful experiences of tourism development in Switzerland include environmental protection, cultural heritance, exhibition marketing, investment, brand management, hotel management, and so on. On this basis, four suggestions are recommended to upgrade tourism in Hebei Province based on its actual situations, namely regulating tourism market, pushing tourism education, attracting investments, and building tourism brand.展开更多
Objective: To assess self-rated health and impairments for six large immigrant groups (Germany, Italy, Kosovo, Portugal, Serbia, Turkey) in Switzerland. Methods: We used population-based survey data from the Swiss Mig...Objective: To assess self-rated health and impairments for six large immigrant groups (Germany, Italy, Kosovo, Portugal, Serbia, Turkey) in Switzerland. Methods: We used population-based survey data from the Swiss Migrant Health Survey 2010 and the Swiss Health Survey 2007. The sample comprised permanent residents aged 17 - 64 years (n = 14,637). Multivariate logistic regressions have been used to estimate odds ratios (OR). Results: Ill health and activities of daily living (ADL) impairments were associated with older age in all groups. However, nationals from Turkey and nationals from Kosovo were substantially more likely than Swiss to report ill health (OR = 1.05;CI = 1.02 - 1.09;P = 0.001 and OR = 1.05;CI = 1.01 - 1.10;P = 0.016) and ADL impairments (OR = 1.06;CI = 1.03 - 1.09;P = 0.000 and OR = 1.04;CI = 1.01 - 1.07;P = 0.004) with increasing age. Furthermore, Portuguese women were more likely (OR = 2.65;CI = 1.40 - 5.03;P = 0.003) to report ill health than Swiss women. Conclusions: Immigrant-specific preventive and health promotion initiatives should target vulnerable immigrants from Turkey, Portugal, and Kosovo. Furthermore, groups with few economic and psychosocial resources in the general population of Switzerland should be more involved in interventions to reduce health risk.展开更多
The WFO Technical Forum 2009 (WTF),sponsored by World Foundrymen Organization,organized by Czech Foundrymens Society,was held on the 1st,2nd and 3rd June 2009,at the Hotel Voronez in Brno,Czech Republic. The 4 day... The WFO Technical Forum 2009 (WTF),sponsored by World Foundrymen Organization,organized by Czech Foundrymens Society,was held on the 1st,2nd and 3rd June 2009,at the Hotel Voronez in Brno,Czech Republic. The 4 days included technical presentations,social events and the very important Ph.D conference. During the event there were the General Assembly bringing together the organizations members from around the world,and an exhibition,supported by 34 world's leading foundry based companies. In addition the event coincided with the Czech Foundrymens Society Foundry Days now in its 46th year.……展开更多
Switzerland is one of the most desirable European destinations for Chinese tourists;therefore, a better understanding of Chinese tourists is essential for successful business practices. In China, the largest and leadi...Switzerland is one of the most desirable European destinations for Chinese tourists;therefore, a better understanding of Chinese tourists is essential for successful business practices. In China, the largest and leading social media platform—Sina Weibo, a hybrid of Twitter and Facebook—has more than 600 million users. Weibo’s great market penetration suggests that tourism operators and markets need to understand how to build effective and sustainable communications on Chinese social media platforms. In order to offer a better decision support platform to tourism destination managers as well as Chinese tourists, we proposed a framework using linked data on Sina Weibo. Linked Data is a term referring to using the Internet to connect related data. We will show how it can be used and how ontology can be designed to include the users’ context (e.g., GPS locations). Our framework will provide a good theoretical foundation for further understand Chinese tourists’ expectation, experiences, behaviors and new trends in Switzerland.展开更多
笔者今年参观了一家瑞士截面金工制造公司,以寻求它们怎样在全球竞争性的制造业中迎接挑战。瑞士的加工车间是什么样子的?瑞士机床建设者如何应对本国制造成本高的难题? 为什么精益的制造业被以效率和精度享誉世界的瑞士公司所接受?本...笔者今年参观了一家瑞士截面金工制造公司,以寻求它们怎样在全球竞争性的制造业中迎接挑战。瑞士的加工车间是什么样子的?瑞士机床建设者如何应对本国制造成本高的难题? 为什么精益的制造业被以效率和精度享誉世界的瑞士公司所接受?本文对八家公司的金工产业做个简介,其中包括两个非常特别的加工车间(C-mill Technologie AG 和 Fribosa)、两个磨床建造商(Studer和 Magerle)、机械工具纺锤制造商(Step-Tec)和高性能机械中心建造商(米克朗)、电火花制造商(阿奇夏米尔)以及toolholders制造商(Rego-Fix)。文中的介绍说明, 瑞士公司和美国公司在许多方面一样接受着全球竞争性的挑战, 虽然它的生产具有典型的瑞士手法。展开更多
On Sep. 8,2009,Switzerland tops the overall ranking in The Global Competitiveness Report 2009-2010, released by the World Economic Forum ahead of its Annual Meeting of the New Champions 2009 in Dalian.
The life of consumer electrical and electronic(E&E)devices is relatively short,and decreasing as a result of rapid changes in equipment features and capabilities.This creates a large waste stream of obsolete E&...The life of consumer electrical and electronic(E&E)devices is relatively short,and decreasing as a result of rapid changes in equipment features and capabilities.This creates a large waste stream of obsolete E&E equipment.Even though there are conventional disposal methods for E&E waste,these methods have disadvantages from both economic and environmental viewpoints.This paper examines the existing recycling situations and collection methods of E&E waste in India and Switzerland.Questionnaire survey,interview discussions and case studies are conducted.Their E&E waste scenario and technologies applied for E&E waste are investigated.It is found that India performs better in E&E intensity per service unit and employment potentials,while Switzerland performs better in occupational hazards and emissions of toxics.Recommendations to improve the existing E&E waste recycling situations and its implications to green building are also given.展开更多
This paper reveals that the implementation of inclusive education is an unfinished challenge,both within the system and for individual self-improvement.This process of changing practices,by continually questioning the...This paper reveals that the implementation of inclusive education is an unfinished challenge,both within the system and for individual self-improvement.This process of changing practices,by continually questioning the school’s responsibility for the(re)production of inequalities,exclusion,and unequal social relations,is riddled with obstacles,unpredictable situations,and strong emotions.In particular,the researchers point out that many systemic mechanisms of school culture contribute to replicating and reifying hierarchical school experiences and exacerbating processes of institutional discrimination against immigrant backgrounds and/or racialized students.The empirical research presented also highlights the school staff’s deficit thinking toward immigrant students and their parents.The results show that staff tend to use linguistic and cultural gaps between students and the school system to explain academic failure.Be that as it may,the researchers as well as the school actors and students interviewed in this paper suggest multiple ways to improve inclusion in the school context,stressing the importance of giving voice to the various actors in order to move toward institutional transformation.展开更多
The recognition of the positive value of student diversity and their right to full participation are key aspects of inclusion as a means of managing heterogeneity of the school population from an equality perspective....The recognition of the positive value of student diversity and their right to full participation are key aspects of inclusion as a means of managing heterogeneity of the school population from an equality perspective.As the school cannot welcome the diversity of children without including their families,the same logic needs to apply to the relationship between the school and parents,particularly in the current environment where the school-family partnership appears as a privileged institutional leverage in the fight against inequalities at school.Based on an ethnographical study exploring how the relationship between the school and the families builds up in a Swiss school located in a context of strong cultural diversity,this paper interrogates how the school norm can be the main limitation to the inclusion of students and parents who are unfamiliar with the school.Derived from field observations and interviews,our results show how the teachers tend to approach their relationship with new students and their parents from the standpoint of narrowly defined expected models,leading them to engage in a vain attempt to conform the students and parents when they deviate from these models.The possibility of entering the school system for students and parents unfamiliar with school is hindered by the exclusive and excluding normativity on which the models of the child and the parent expected by the teachers are grounded.Based on these observations,we discuss how an inclusive approach seems to us to require in the first place a necessary process of decentering from the school and teachers,as a condition for recognition of the actual child and parent.展开更多
This article is based on comparative anthropological fieldwork conducted in the Alpine region of Switzerland on sustainable environmental knowledge about natural hazards related to climate change.It examines ways to c...This article is based on comparative anthropological fieldwork conducted in the Alpine region of Switzerland on sustainable environmental knowledge about natural hazards related to climate change.It examines ways to complement the normative and technological practices of risk management by using local knowledge to improve the resilience of affected communities against climate-related risks.The study shows how agricultural practices and knowledge may contribute to sustainable behavior towards nature and the environment.It explores how local environmental knowledge,perceptions,and handling strategies of climate-related risks may be integrated within a renewed concept of environmental sustainability.Participatory GIS mapping(PGIS)is the primary research method used.Based on applied visual anthropological methods,PGIS is a cartographical approach that integrates local perceptions and strategies of action drawn from interviews and participant observation.This approach enables improved communication of local knowledge and contributes to interdisciplinary cooperation between different academic fields,such as social anthropology,geography,and civil-engineering in the context of technological risk management.The approach encourages the active participation of local people in the process of sustainable risk management through the integration of cultural meanings and local knowledge about the sustainable management of sensitive natural environments.展开更多
Exacerbated by climate change,Europe has experienced series of hot and dry summer since the beginning of the 21st century.The importance of land conditions became an international concern with a dedicated sustainable ...Exacerbated by climate change,Europe has experienced series of hot and dry summer since the beginning of the 21st century.The importance of land conditions became an international concern with a dedicated sustainable development goal(SDG),the SDG 15.It calls for developing and finding innovative solu-tions to follow and evaluate impacts of changing land condi-tions induced by various driving forces.In Switzerland,drought risk will significantly increase in the coming decades with severe consequences on agriculture,energy production and vegeta-tion.In this paper,we used a 35-year satellite-derived annual and seasonal times-series of normalized difference water index(NDWI)to follow vegetation water content evolution at different spatial and temporal scales across Switzerland and related them to temperature and precipitation to investigate possible responses of changing climatic conditions.Results indicate that there is a small and slow drying tendency at the country scale with a NDWI mean decreasing slope of−0.22%/year for the 23%significant pixels across Switzerland.This tendency is mostly visible below 2000 m above sea level(m.a.s.l.)and in all biogeographical regions.The Southern Alps regions appear to be more responsive to changing drying conditions with a significant and slight negative NDWI trend(−0.39%/year)over the last 35 years.Moreover,NDWI values are mostly a func-tion of temperature at elevations below the tree line rather than precipitation.Findings suggest that multi-annual and seasonal NDWI can be a valuable indicator to monitor vegetation water content at different scales,but other components such as land cover type and evapotranspiration should be considered to better characterize NDWI variability.Satellite Earth Observations data can provide valuable complementary obser-vations for national statistics on the ecological state of vegeta-tion to support SDG 15 to monitor land affected by drying conditions.展开更多
文摘In the article tourist management in two national parks in the Czech-German borderland are being compared,namely Bohemian ’Switzerland’(also known as Czech ’Switzerland’) and Saxon’Switzerland’.Situated on either side of the state border,they feature the same type of geographical environment.Transport accessibility,transborder links and the hiking trail network are analyzed using methodology sourced from graph theory.The result of the analyses is a classification of tourist hubs and tourist centers,as well as an indication of the main directions of tourist flow.The German national park is decidedly more accessible but with a detrimental effect on the natural environment primarily due to its fragmentation by a dense network of tourist trails.In both parks trails enter the core zone(in theory a strict protection area) but this occurs on a larger scale on the German side.In the Czech national park a greater number of positive examples of managing tourist movements can be identified.Additionally,larger areas managed for dispersion,or from which tourists are generally excluded,are located there.
文摘We assessed the risk of overweight and obesity for six large migrant groups in Switzerland. We used population-based survey data form the Swiss Migrant Health Survey 2010 and the Swiss Health Survey 2007. The sample comprised permanent residents aged 17 - 64 years (n = 14,637). Multivariate logistic regressions have been used to estimate odds ratios (OR). Compared with Swiss nationals, the odds of being obese were 1.97 times higher for Turkish nationals (CI-95 1.26, 3.07), 1.73 times higher for Kosovan nationals (CI-95 1.09, 2.74) and 3.42 times higher for Serbs (CI-95 2.28, 5.12). The chance of being obese was not statistically different between Swiss nationals and those from Portugal, Italy, and Germany. The chance of being overweight or obese (BMI ≥ 25) was higher for migrants than for Swiss nationals. The respective odds were 1.54 times higher for nationals from Portugal (CI-95 1.13, 2.11), 2.05 times higher for those from Turkey (CI-95 1.50, 2.78), 2.67 times higher for those from Serbia (CI-95 1.93, 3.68), 2.68 times higher for those from Kosovo (CI-95 2.01, 3.56), and 2.16 times higher for nationals from Italy (CI-95 1.54, 3.02). We suggest that preventive initiatives should take into account the specific needs of migrants as well as the needs of persons with low education from all nationalities.
文摘1. Introduction With the opening ceremony of the Gotthard Base Tunnel on 1 June 2016, a new world record was established: the commissioning of the longest railway tunnel in the world. Many challenges have been overcome and many technical innovations have been developed and considered in this project. As of 11 December 2016, the Gotthard Base Tunnel has been an integral part of the new timetable of the Swiss Federal Railways (SBB-CFF-FFS), and is in full operation. With a total length of 57 km and a cruising speed of 200 km·h^-1 for passenger trains, the Gotthard Base Tunnel reduces the journey time through the Alps by 40 min, significantly reducing the distance between the south and north of Europe.
基金Supported by Program of College of Management,Hebei University"Brand Building and Development of Cultural Heritage Tourism in Hebei Provience"USM Fellowship Grant offered by Universiti Sains Malaysia
文摘Switzerland is one of the best tourism destinations in the world. Its development experience is valuable for Hebei, whose competitiveness is weak comparatively in spite of rich tourism resources. Specifically, the successful experiences of tourism development in Switzerland include environmental protection, cultural heritance, exhibition marketing, investment, brand management, hotel management, and so on. On this basis, four suggestions are recommended to upgrade tourism in Hebei Province based on its actual situations, namely regulating tourism market, pushing tourism education, attracting investments, and building tourism brand.
文摘Objective: To assess self-rated health and impairments for six large immigrant groups (Germany, Italy, Kosovo, Portugal, Serbia, Turkey) in Switzerland. Methods: We used population-based survey data from the Swiss Migrant Health Survey 2010 and the Swiss Health Survey 2007. The sample comprised permanent residents aged 17 - 64 years (n = 14,637). Multivariate logistic regressions have been used to estimate odds ratios (OR). Results: Ill health and activities of daily living (ADL) impairments were associated with older age in all groups. However, nationals from Turkey and nationals from Kosovo were substantially more likely than Swiss to report ill health (OR = 1.05;CI = 1.02 - 1.09;P = 0.001 and OR = 1.05;CI = 1.01 - 1.10;P = 0.016) and ADL impairments (OR = 1.06;CI = 1.03 - 1.09;P = 0.000 and OR = 1.04;CI = 1.01 - 1.07;P = 0.004) with increasing age. Furthermore, Portuguese women were more likely (OR = 2.65;CI = 1.40 - 5.03;P = 0.003) to report ill health than Swiss women. Conclusions: Immigrant-specific preventive and health promotion initiatives should target vulnerable immigrants from Turkey, Portugal, and Kosovo. Furthermore, groups with few economic and psychosocial resources in the general population of Switzerland should be more involved in interventions to reduce health risk.
文摘 The WFO Technical Forum 2009 (WTF),sponsored by World Foundrymen Organization,organized by Czech Foundrymens Society,was held on the 1st,2nd and 3rd June 2009,at the Hotel Voronez in Brno,Czech Republic. The 4 days included technical presentations,social events and the very important Ph.D conference. During the event there were the General Assembly bringing together the organizations members from around the world,and an exhibition,supported by 34 world's leading foundry based companies. In addition the event coincided with the Czech Foundrymens Society Foundry Days now in its 46th year.……
文摘Switzerland is one of the most desirable European destinations for Chinese tourists;therefore, a better understanding of Chinese tourists is essential for successful business practices. In China, the largest and leading social media platform—Sina Weibo, a hybrid of Twitter and Facebook—has more than 600 million users. Weibo’s great market penetration suggests that tourism operators and markets need to understand how to build effective and sustainable communications on Chinese social media platforms. In order to offer a better decision support platform to tourism destination managers as well as Chinese tourists, we proposed a framework using linked data on Sina Weibo. Linked Data is a term referring to using the Internet to connect related data. We will show how it can be used and how ontology can be designed to include the users’ context (e.g., GPS locations). Our framework will provide a good theoretical foundation for further understand Chinese tourists’ expectation, experiences, behaviors and new trends in Switzerland.
文摘笔者今年参观了一家瑞士截面金工制造公司,以寻求它们怎样在全球竞争性的制造业中迎接挑战。瑞士的加工车间是什么样子的?瑞士机床建设者如何应对本国制造成本高的难题? 为什么精益的制造业被以效率和精度享誉世界的瑞士公司所接受?本文对八家公司的金工产业做个简介,其中包括两个非常特别的加工车间(C-mill Technologie AG 和 Fribosa)、两个磨床建造商(Studer和 Magerle)、机械工具纺锤制造商(Step-Tec)和高性能机械中心建造商(米克朗)、电火花制造商(阿奇夏米尔)以及toolholders制造商(Rego-Fix)。文中的介绍说明, 瑞士公司和美国公司在许多方面一样接受着全球竞争性的挑战, 虽然它的生产具有典型的瑞士手法。
文摘On Sep. 8,2009,Switzerland tops the overall ranking in The Global Competitiveness Report 2009-2010, released by the World Economic Forum ahead of its Annual Meeting of the New Champions 2009 in Dalian.
文摘The life of consumer electrical and electronic(E&E)devices is relatively short,and decreasing as a result of rapid changes in equipment features and capabilities.This creates a large waste stream of obsolete E&E equipment.Even though there are conventional disposal methods for E&E waste,these methods have disadvantages from both economic and environmental viewpoints.This paper examines the existing recycling situations and collection methods of E&E waste in India and Switzerland.Questionnaire survey,interview discussions and case studies are conducted.Their E&E waste scenario and technologies applied for E&E waste are investigated.It is found that India performs better in E&E intensity per service unit and employment potentials,while Switzerland performs better in occupational hazards and emissions of toxics.Recommendations to improve the existing E&E waste recycling situations and its implications to green building are also given.
文摘This paper reveals that the implementation of inclusive education is an unfinished challenge,both within the system and for individual self-improvement.This process of changing practices,by continually questioning the school’s responsibility for the(re)production of inequalities,exclusion,and unequal social relations,is riddled with obstacles,unpredictable situations,and strong emotions.In particular,the researchers point out that many systemic mechanisms of school culture contribute to replicating and reifying hierarchical school experiences and exacerbating processes of institutional discrimination against immigrant backgrounds and/or racialized students.The empirical research presented also highlights the school staff’s deficit thinking toward immigrant students and their parents.The results show that staff tend to use linguistic and cultural gaps between students and the school system to explain academic failure.Be that as it may,the researchers as well as the school actors and students interviewed in this paper suggest multiple ways to improve inclusion in the school context,stressing the importance of giving voice to the various actors in order to move toward institutional transformation.
文摘The recognition of the positive value of student diversity and their right to full participation are key aspects of inclusion as a means of managing heterogeneity of the school population from an equality perspective.As the school cannot welcome the diversity of children without including their families,the same logic needs to apply to the relationship between the school and parents,particularly in the current environment where the school-family partnership appears as a privileged institutional leverage in the fight against inequalities at school.Based on an ethnographical study exploring how the relationship between the school and the families builds up in a Swiss school located in a context of strong cultural diversity,this paper interrogates how the school norm can be the main limitation to the inclusion of students and parents who are unfamiliar with the school.Derived from field observations and interviews,our results show how the teachers tend to approach their relationship with new students and their parents from the standpoint of narrowly defined expected models,leading them to engage in a vain attempt to conform the students and parents when they deviate from these models.The possibility of entering the school system for students and parents unfamiliar with school is hindered by the exclusive and excluding normativity on which the models of the child and the parent expected by the teachers are grounded.Based on these observations,we discuss how an inclusive approach seems to us to require in the first place a necessary process of decentering from the school and teachers,as a condition for recognition of the actual child and parent.
文摘This article is based on comparative anthropological fieldwork conducted in the Alpine region of Switzerland on sustainable environmental knowledge about natural hazards related to climate change.It examines ways to complement the normative and technological practices of risk management by using local knowledge to improve the resilience of affected communities against climate-related risks.The study shows how agricultural practices and knowledge may contribute to sustainable behavior towards nature and the environment.It explores how local environmental knowledge,perceptions,and handling strategies of climate-related risks may be integrated within a renewed concept of environmental sustainability.Participatory GIS mapping(PGIS)is the primary research method used.Based on applied visual anthropological methods,PGIS is a cartographical approach that integrates local perceptions and strategies of action drawn from interviews and participant observation.This approach enables improved communication of local knowledge and contributes to interdisciplinary cooperation between different academic fields,such as social anthropology,geography,and civil-engineering in the context of technological risk management.The approach encourages the active participation of local people in the process of sustainable risk management through the integration of cultural meanings and local knowledge about the sustainable management of sensitive natural environments.
文摘Exacerbated by climate change,Europe has experienced series of hot and dry summer since the beginning of the 21st century.The importance of land conditions became an international concern with a dedicated sustainable development goal(SDG),the SDG 15.It calls for developing and finding innovative solu-tions to follow and evaluate impacts of changing land condi-tions induced by various driving forces.In Switzerland,drought risk will significantly increase in the coming decades with severe consequences on agriculture,energy production and vegeta-tion.In this paper,we used a 35-year satellite-derived annual and seasonal times-series of normalized difference water index(NDWI)to follow vegetation water content evolution at different spatial and temporal scales across Switzerland and related them to temperature and precipitation to investigate possible responses of changing climatic conditions.Results indicate that there is a small and slow drying tendency at the country scale with a NDWI mean decreasing slope of−0.22%/year for the 23%significant pixels across Switzerland.This tendency is mostly visible below 2000 m above sea level(m.a.s.l.)and in all biogeographical regions.The Southern Alps regions appear to be more responsive to changing drying conditions with a significant and slight negative NDWI trend(−0.39%/year)over the last 35 years.Moreover,NDWI values are mostly a func-tion of temperature at elevations below the tree line rather than precipitation.Findings suggest that multi-annual and seasonal NDWI can be a valuable indicator to monitor vegetation water content at different scales,but other components such as land cover type and evapotranspiration should be considered to better characterize NDWI variability.Satellite Earth Observations data can provide valuable complementary obser-vations for national statistics on the ecological state of vegeta-tion to support SDG 15 to monitor land affected by drying conditions.
